Unveiled
by Jessi Scott
Summary: Aly Ellidyr's life is turned around in the blink of an eye when her aunt and uncle go missing and she is nearly killed, but saved by the mysterious and darkly attractive Dimitri Baine. R&R plz
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

You know all of those really good books that you read that have some kind of mythical creature in it, but mythical creatures don't really exist? Well, when I read those books as a kid, I always entertained the thought that it would be cool if all of those creatures really did exist. But now as I look back on my life, I can see how much I had wanted that to be true and how stupid I was for wanting it. Because after my eighteenth birthday, I would find out that all of these creatures were real, and that I was in charge of dealing with them. All of them. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Damn.

Again I'm going to make a reference back to those really good books I was talking about. If you really look and pay attention, in most of them the beginning of the crisis starts on a nice, normal kind of day, with sunshine reflecting off of water in a backyard pool not on a "dark and stormy night." Yeah, well the beginning of my crisis _did_ start on a dark and stormy night. Not to mention a cold one. It was the night after my eighteenth birthday and I was in town to get a milkshake because I thought it would calm my nerves. I had been feeling a little uneasy.

I stepped in out of the snow, my long, black leather coat blowing around me. I pulled up my long, curly hair into a ponytail because it looked like crap now, thanks to the wind.

"Hay Aly," a voice called to me from the back of the restaurant. "What are you up to?"

I nodded in greeting to one of my best friends, Andi Daugherty.

"Felt like a milkshake, and a little walking around," I told her. This was the truth, but not the whole truth. I had tried to take a late nap because I hadn't slept at all. Ever since the clock had struck midnight last night I hadn't been able to shake the feeling of unease that had crept over me. At first, I had thought it was just nerves. Not that turning eighteen was anything to get nervous over, but who knows?

Another close friend of mine, Taylor Duzik, laughed lightly. "Halloween was yesterday, Aly. Nothing to be scared of now." She sounded completely sarcastic.

I must have looked a little tense. I rolled my eyes. "I 'dunno Tay. Who said all of the ghosts and ghouls disappeared at sunrise? Maybe some of them wanted to stay and play," I joked as I walked over to the table where they sat. But in the back of my mind, Taylor's comment stuck like a fly to flypaper. Halloween had passed a night before, on my birthday as usual.

Everyone in town knew me because of that. I was friends with about half of my tiny town, but the other half knew me as "that creepy girl born on Halloween." You would think that it would be cool these days, because Halloween is one of the cooler holidays, but not around here. In this town, being born on Halloween defiantly wasn't good for your social life.

Andi, Taylor, and I talked for a while and I ordered a chocolate shake to see if it would calm me down. It helped a bit.

As we paid for our food I glanced out the window into a snowstorm and sighed. I walked into town from my house and the dark clouds had followed me the whole way.

"You need a ride, Aly?" Andi asked, seeing my reaction.

"Nah, I'll be fine. A little snow never hurt anybody," I told her. I hate it when Andi is out so late, she has a long drive ahead of her to get to her house and I didn't want her caught in the worst part of the storm. Plus, we both lived on separate ends of the town.

"Are you sure? It wouldn't take me long," she insisted.

"No, its fine. Your mom will kill you if you're out too late in that," I said and gestured to the window.

"Okay," she said, unsure of whether she should let me walk or not. "Just don't get sick, alright?"

"You have a deal," I said, giving her thumbs up.

The three of us joked around and talked about school and other subjects for a little while longer before we headed for the door.

"Oh, crap!" I said, suddenly remembering something.

"What's wrong?" Taylor asked.

"I forgot my cell on the table," I smacked myself on the forehead. "I'll see you guys later. I 'gotta go get it."

Taylor and Andi said a quick goodbye and I turned around and weaved my way back to the table where we had been sitting. When I picked up my phone the bell above the door tingled and a blast of icy wind shot through the restaurant, making my coat blow around me. I turned around to see who in the world was coming out to eat this late –not counting me; I was out this late all the time- and froze to a standstill. Stepping through the door was a man. I didn't know what was so interesting about him that made me freeze. He was wearing a long black duster that looked kind of like mine, dark blue jeans, and a tight fitting T-shirt. He shook his head, sending flakes of melting snow from long, black hair, and kicked off his black-with-silver-toed boots. His dark eyes –and when I say dark, I mean like, black- flickered around the room once and then came to rest on me. Only seconds passed, but when his eyes met mine, I could swear that I heard the angels singing halleluiah. Talk about gorgeous eyes!

I turned my gaze to the waitress at the counter. That uneasy feeling crept over me again and I felt like I had spiders crawling on my skin and I shivered. I hate it when mental picture accompanies bad feelings. It only made things worse. The shake I'd had a while ago had helped a little bit…

"Hay, Leah, can I have another milkshake please?" I asked, walking toward the counter.

"Sure, hold on," she smiled and walked back into the kitchen. I like Leah, she and I were both night owls and get along pretty well.

As I sat down at one of the stools the figure at the door began to move. Tall, dark, and –as he stepped into better light I saw- dreamy, the guy was about six-foot-three. He walked silently, despite the boots, and with the grace that you would never be able to picture a person that big would have.

I took my shake from Leah with a nod and watched him out of the corner of my eye. What made me do so was a mystery. Maybe it was the fact that this was what all the interesting guys from all of my books looked like; dark and mysterious. Or maybe it was the air around him. He inscrutable look about guys had always caught my eye.

He walked over and sat in the stool next to me. "Alyssium Castle?" he asked.

I was shocked. His voice was so velvety that it might as well have come straight from an angel. But how in the world did he know my name?

"Yes," I nodded. "How do you know me?"

"Your aunt and uncle are Terisa and Mark Castle, correct?" he asked, ignoring my question.

"Yeah, but my last name isn't really Castle," I told him. This guy could be a stalker for all I knew, and I didn't like strangers –no matter how good looking- knowing my last name.

"I know," he said lightly. "It's Ellidyr."

My eyes narrowed slightly. How did he know me and my aunt and uncle? Who was he in the first place? "How do you know me?" I repeated.

He ignored my question, _again_, and instead ordered a Guinness from Leah. I watched him, waiting for an answer, but he was silent and still, except for his breathing. I looked at him more closely. He was… breathtaking. A light tan ran over smooth muscled skin. And when I say muscle, I mean muscle. He looked like he could be one of those body builder guys on TV. His shirt shaped his body closely and man did it look good. I had no doubt that under that worn leather duster that his arms were pure muscle and strength. He took his drink from Leah and turned his attention back to me.

"It's funny that I ran into you," he said. "I was just on my way over to see Mark and Risa."

So he did know my aunt and uncle. He had even called my aunt by her nickname. But how did he know me? I had never seen him before in my life. Maybe Mark or Risa had mentioned me to him.

"Who are you?" I asked.

He raised a brow. "You don't know?"

"Er… no," I said, frowning. "Should I?"

A flash of something crossed his face, quick as lightening. It looked to me like… surprise… and a dark anger. I was so quick that I had barely caught it.

"I suppose not," he said, taking a drink of his beer. No emotion betrayed in his voice at all.

I took a drink of my shake and looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to tell me his name or something. "So," I prompted after a few moments of silence. "Who are you?"

"A friend of your aunt and uncle's."

"Well yeah, I figured that," I said. He was evading answering my questions and it was starting to tick me off. He rose a brow and amusement flashed in his eyes.

"You want my name?" he asked. I got a mental picture of a guy shaking a nice, juicy steak at a hungry dog and teasing it saying, _"You want it? Too bad." _

"That would be nice," I said, keeping my voice even taking another drink of my milkshake.

"Do you read?" he asked suddenly.

"Wha--? That is really off subject."

"I know. Do you read?" he repeated.

Yes, I did read. I liked it better than watching TV. It let you create your own images and use your imagination instead of showing you something and skipping over the imagining. You know all of those book references that I was using earlier? Well those wouldn't be there if I didn't read.

"Yes, all the time," I answered. "Why?"

"What kind of books?" he went on as if he hadn't heard me ask why.

"Fantasy, now will you please answer my questions?" I snapped. I hate it when people do that, and he was irritating me.

Silence accompanied by crickets chirping.

"Oh come on!" I said, exasperated. "What's wrong with telling me your name? You know mine, I want to know yours." Seriously, what was his deal? Not like I was going to put a curse on him by using his name.

He looked at me as if deciding to give me an answer or not. I crossed my arms and glared out the window into the snowstorm. It was getting worse and I still had to walk home. This was a waste of my time. If he wasn't going to answer me, there was no use trying to get him to.

I decided that this must not be my night. First, this stupid snowstorm, then a dark and mysterious guy shows up claiming to know my aunt and uncle. I ask him who he is and how he knows me and I don't get any answers, but he keeps asking me questions. How could he expect me to answer him if he wasn't answering me in return?

"Do you have a car, Ms. Ellidyr?" he asked.

"Yes," I said, not offering anymore than a straight answer.

"It's not here though, is it?"

I returned my gaze to him. "No, I walked."

"This isn't the best walking weather, you know," he said as if I was a dorky little kid.

I shrugged. I liked walking. It was just my luck that the looming black storm clouds had decided to follow me at the heels all the way into town.

"Come with me. I was on my way over to your aunt and uncle's after this anyway," he said, making it sound as if I didn't have a choice.

"What if I want to walk?" I asked, stubborn.

He gave me a look that said _bullshit_ and said, "You don't want to walk. Not with that storm. You don't like snowstorms."

Okay, how the world did he know that?

"I saw the look on your face when you looked out the window," he said as if I had voiced that question out loud.

Oh, I see. He was good at reading faces, because I could've sworn that my face was all but blank. Great. Not. But he wasn't completely right. I hate _windy_ snowstorms. Normal snowstorms I like just fine because it looks so cool with the flakes floating lightly down from the sky and I loved the feeling that you got when you catch one on your tongue. But windy snowstorms suck. The snow didn't fall all light-and-fluffy-ish and it was physically impossible to catch a snowflake on your tongue with the wind blowing it around. Plus, it made it really hard to see because all of those flakes either blew into your eyes or got all mixed together and made it hopeless to see anything beyond a five foot radius.

Thinking about that made me decide. If he was already going where I was going, it would be pointless to walk. I sighed. "Alright, but I want your name first."

Amusement flashed in his eyes again. "Dimitri Baine," he _finally_ answered, holding his hand out. I glanced at it before I shook it. Holy cow, his hands were huge! They had to be twice the size of mine! As my skin met his I was suddenly aware of the strange air around him. It seemed… electric. But his hand was warm to the touch and felt good agenst my chilly fingers.

"Your hands are cold," he noted.

I pulled my hand away and took a drink of my milkshake, finishing it. "My hands are always cold," I told him.

"Yet you are sitting here drinking a frozen beverage," he said, "in a snowstorm."

"Pretty much," I said, shrugging.

Gave me look and then finished the last of his beer.

I ignored him. I always did oxymoronish things like that. Case in point, I would be walking around in a blizzard and stop at a restaurant and drink a milkshake. Stupid, right? Oh well, I don't really care.

I took a five out of my pocket and laid it down on the counter to pay for my shake. Or I thought I was paying for my shake. But Dimitri Baine's hand on the counter next to mine holding a silver credit card contradicted that thought.

"I'll pay," he told me.

I gave him a dry look. "I think I can pay for my own milkshake."

"Consider it a late birthday present," he said as Leah scanned the card.

"How did you know about my birthday?" I asked him as I put my five in the back pocket of my jeans. I tried to recall seeing him around town. Surely that's where he had heard about my uncanny birth date. I didn't think anyone outside of town knew –or cared for that matter- and I had no other family besides my aunt and uncle.

"A lot of people know your story, Ms. Ellidyr."

My story? I thought we were talking about my birthday. Unless in this conversation, the two were going hand in hand…. But how could anyone know? Mark and Risa had kept quiet about my parents, but that's how gossip goes in small towns. Everyone knows everything.

I stared into his eyes. Surely I would remember seeing them. They were like a dark mirror. I know would remember seeing them. But I couldn't.

"I've never seen you around t—" I started.

"Your little townspeople aren't the only ones who know about you," he said sharply, cutting me off.

I frowned. I hate it when people cut me off. And his tone wasn't my favorite either. He sounded impatient, the way an adult sounds when they are trying to get a kid to understand something, but the kid just didn't get it.

I stood up and crossed my arms. "And why exactly is my story so big of a deal that people know about it?" I asked. I was a little irritated –not to mention creeped out- that my past was interesting to anyone in the first place.

He looked me up and down. Slowly, like he was measuring me. Memorizing my face, the color of my hair, eyes, and skin. He seemed to take in every single detail, every oddly different curl in my hair, right down to the little gold circle in my icy blue eyes. It was creepy, I felt like I was being burned onto a CD. Then he stood up and nodded toward the door.

"Time to go," he said.

What, he was my escort now? Telling me it was time to go like he was in charge of me. What was that about? You would at least think that he would ask me if I was ready to go, right? Be a gentleman? But no, he just up and decided that it was time to go so he was going to drag me along like a little dog on a leash.

Agitated, I followed him out the door. We walked down the sidewalk for a little while, our eyes squinted agenst the snow blowing in our faces, and stopped at a dark car. I took a closer look, recognizing the shape and my mouth dropped open. It was a Viper! One of the newer models too. They are on the second-to-top of my list of favorite cars. But I had my favorite car already. I must have been so in awe of the car that I had stopped walking.

"Ms. Ellidyr?" Dimitri Baine's voice brought me out of my revere.

"Sorry," I blinked. "Nice car."

"The newest Viper," he said –was that a hint of smugness in his voice?- as we climbed in.

I nodded again, looking at the interior design. Dark leather seats with a silver trim, a dark grey dashboard, and a Sirius radio that was glowing blue in the darkness. It had to be one of the hottest cars that I had ever seen in this town. "Yeah, I know. It's almost as fast as the new Mustangs," I said, a tiny little bit of smugness in my own voice.

"You're into cars."

"Yeah, kind of," I shrugged. "I don't know all of the nerdy stats, but I know fast when I see it. I have been granted the chance to see the engine in one of these," I said, tapping the dash with my knuckles, "but I think that my Saleen Bullet has a slightly smoother engine."

"Oh really?" he asked as he turned the key in the ignition.

We talked car stats –as many as I know, anyway- as he drove towards my aunt and uncles house. I couldn't decide whether I should be unnerved by the fact that he knew exactly where we lived or not. Our little stats talk quickly turned into a who's-car-is-better argument. I had to admit, he was good. I don't know all of the terms for car parts and all that jazz like he did, but I didn't care what he said. I knew my car was the best.

* * *

He pulled up in front of my place about twenty minutes later. We arrived at almost-top-speed thanks to the fact that the cops didn't patrol the county roads around here. I climbed out and walked as quickly as I could without slipping on the ice to the front door. The wind tugging at me as I tried to walk didn't help any, and I barely avoided falling on my butt thanks to a little help from the porch railing. Then I shoved the keys into the lock and turned the knob.

"Mark, Risa, I'm back," I called through the house as I stepped inside. I never call my aunt and uncle, Aunt Terisa, or Uncle Mark, or even mom or dad, which they might as well be since they raised me. I only call them out loud by their first names, or in my aunt's case, nickname.

Mark came into the entry room from the kitchen, his green eyes bright and a smile plastered on his face. But that smile faded as he saw Dimitri Baine step in behind me. Terisa walked in behind Mark, her short blonde hair up in a high ponytail. She took a short look at me and then her eyes also went to the man coming in behind me.

"Dimitri, what are you doing here?" she asked, and as I watched, she went stiff as a two-by-four.

I frowned, hadn't he said that he was a friend of my aunt and uncle's? It sure didn't look that way. The way the light in Mark's eyes went out reminded me of a jack-o-lantern missing its candle. He was looking at Dimitri Baine with shock. Risa's ponytail didn't have its usual cute bouncy look to it anymore and her expression mirrored her husbands, but with a small spark of fear.

I looked from my folks –who are usually very easy going, happy people- for a moment and then turned to Dimitri Baine with a look of complete confusion on my face. Why would my aunt and uncle suddenly lose their normally never ending happy energy because of seeing this man?

He took one glance at me and then looked to Mark and Risa. "She doesn't know does she?" he asked, sounding as if he couldn't believe what was going on. But that was the question; what was going on?

"Don't know what?" I asked.

"Aly, go to your room," Risa said firmly.

What the jazz was with people ordering me around like I was ten years old? "Don't know what?" I repeated my tone defiant.

"Go to your room, Alyssium Castle," she ordered.

"It's Ellidyr. Alyssium Ellidyr. And I'm not going to be ordered around like a little kid," I said firmly. This was stupid. I just turned eighteen! I was legally an adult they _couldn't_ order me around.

"Aly, will you please just let the adults talk this out?" she asked, her voice softening considerably.

I put my hands on my hips and shifted my weight to one side. That wasn't going to work on me this time. Mark and Risa had always told me that, to let the adults talk things out. But now, I was one of the adults and they couldn't leave me out of their little talk this time.

"I don't see any kids around here, Risa. We're all adults, or did you forget? I just had my eighteenth birthday." My voice was icy, but I thought I had a good point.

"Just because you're a legal adult doesn't mean that your mind is ready to handle certain things yet," Mark said.

Damn. He had a better point. But that didn't mean that I couldn't_ try_ to understand things. Talk about underestimating teenagers.

"Please Aly," he looked at me, the 'please' shining in his eyes.

"No," I said flatly. That was the end of it. I wanted to know what was going on and I am stubborn so I wasn't going to give in so easily. They would have to tie me to my bed if they wanted a private conversation.

But I all too soon found that my defiance wasn't as strong as I thought it was, when it came to certain points of breaking, that is. That overestimated stubbornness of mine was shredded to pieces with a touch. Dimitri Baine put a hand on my shoulder and whispered in my ear. "Things will be explained in time," he said.

I heard what he was saying, but something happened. I heard the words in my mind. It was like I thought them in his voice. It was odd, and I couldn't wrap my mind around it. But to tell the truth, I didn't really try to wrap my mind around it. My thoughts were somewhere else.

Part of me was processing the fact that I was going to have my answers sooner or later, and hopefully it would be sooner rather than later. I was going to know what was so important about this man and why and how he knew me, and my aunt and uncle.

The other part of my brain was thinking something totally different. It was my emotions, and at the moment my feelings were torn. I could feel Dimitri Baine's very being behind me like I was some kind of radar. His hand on my shoulder was like fire… but not in a bad way, I realized. It felt like every cell in my body was alive and buzzing with electricity from the moment he touched me. His breath was cool on my neck when he spoke, giving me the chills, and his words were like a trance with his velvety voice. I felt a physical attraction to him like a magnet did to iron.

But my mental attraction… well that wasn't going anywhere even remotely in the same direction. That was like trying to pick up a plastic water bottle with a refrigerator magnet. I had my reasons. One: I didn't even really know this guy. Two: I believed very strongly in first impressions and the first impression that I had got from Dimitri Baine was that he was an overly persistent jerk. He barely answered any of my questions, that was just plain ru--

"Let me talk to them," he whispered, pulling me out of my revere.

And along with being rude he interrupts my thoughts. But that was fine this time because it cleared my head. Of course he could talk to my aunt and uncle, but I was still going to be here when he did. I opened my mouth to tell him this but he spoke again, cutting off my loophole.

"Alone."

If I was a vampire I would be growling. But I wasn't, so instead I blew out an irritated breath. I wanted to know what was going on! I thought I had been told all the secrets that Mark and Terisa had kept from me. Obviously I was dead wrong. I about told them that I wasn't going anywhere and that was the end of the story. I was going to know what had my family so freaked out. But I stopped myself. I had a better idea. It was so simple. Mark and Risa didn't want to tell me… whatever it was that they didn't want to tell me… so they weren't going to. I often wondered if my parents had been stubborn because my aunt and uncle sure are. They wouldn't say a word to me if they didn't want to.

But that didn't mean that I couldn't have answers.

I tried my best not to look smug by my idea.

"Fine," I said shortly. I wasn't going to make a scene and go stomping off to my room, that would be childish and I would never convince Mark and Terisa that I really was a responsible adult.

As a matter of fact, the way that I didn't overlook anything as easy as my plan should have showed them that at least I was using my brain. It would have if they were in my shoes. But they weren't, so I would just have to stick with that.

I coolly shrugged off Dimitri Baine's hand on my shoulder and smoothly walked around the corner to my room. Once I was there I slammed the door shut and took my shoes off. My DC's weren't good shoes to be sneaking around in when they could slip off of your feet at any moment. When I was only in my socks I crept along the hardwood floor with my back to the wall and stopped at the edge. I subconsciously quieted my breathing and heard a velvety voice that could only belong to the man that had annoyed me tonight.

"She doesn't even know what she is," he was saying in a controlled voice.

"She doesn't need to know," Terisa's voice came around the corner.

What? Don't know what I am? Well that is kind of obvious. An eighteen year old, stubborn girl in her final year of highschool, that's what. But that couldn't be it. There was something deeper. So… what was I? And why didn't Mark and Risa want me to know?

"Yes, she does," Dimitri Baine's voice broke into my thoughts, _again. _"How are you going to explain it to her when things start to happen?" his voice had an icy chill to it, and later on I would learn that this happened when he was unhappy about something.

"Ris… he is right. She should at least know about why whatever happens, happens." Mark sounded reasonable. I almost smiled. He always looks at all the angles of a situation before deciding something.

"Nothing is going to happen," Risa sounded persistent. "There is a reason that we live in this small, uninteresting town. None of _them_ come here and they won't be able to find her."

"I found her."

Three words can do a lot of things. "I love you" for instance, can tell someone their feelings for another. But _his_ words, "_I found her," _made my throat constrict. He said it breezily as if it was no trouble at all. Who was this guy? I thought the run in at the restaurant was just a coincidence.

"You're more experienced than the others," my aunt argued back.

"What does that matter? She is traceable now because she is eighteen. They could easily send someone after her," he spoke brusquely now.

Wait a second! Trace? Send someone? What on earth were they talking about? Obviously someone was looking for me, but who? Why? The tone in hisvoice suggested that whoever it was didn't want to give me a late birthday present, so to speak.

"They don't even know of this place, she will be safe," Risa refused to hear his words.

"Again, you're wrong. She could have very easily had a run in tonight," his words sent another icy chill down my spine.

"They can't possibly know that she is here."

"Oh but they can. They do. They know that she is without protection and somewhere in this state. Scouts are everywhere looking for her," his voice was grave. "She is lucky that I found her when I did."

My stomach flipped. The people that were looking for me had been that close? That must have been why we left so suddenly. But if they were tracking me why didn't they know right where I was? Maybe they weren't exactly tracking…

I noticed the silence in the other room. It disturbed me. It was full of tension. Full of fear. It was so thick I could cut a doughnut hole in it with my pocket knife. They were all silent and I could almost see the looks of shock on my aunt and uncle's faces.

"She needs to know," he said again, softer this time.

Yes, I did need to know. I snuck back to the door to my room and opened it, just to over play the act of being in my room. Hopefully they would buy it and think that I had been in my room for a short time. Then I walked back and stepped around the corner to find Mark's arms around Terisa and they were both facing Dimitri Baine. Risa had tears on her cheeks and Mark looked as if he had just seen a ghost.

"Can I please know what's going on?" I asked. I _needed_ to know what was happening, what I was, who was after me, and all of the rest of the crazy questions whirling around in my head like a tornado.

Mark saw this in my eyes and looked down at his wife. "Ris, she needs to know. It will help her understand everything later on."

More tears cascaded down my aunt's face as she shook her head. "No! I don't want her getting caught up in the same thing that Quin and Cassidy were."

My parents' names were a shock to me. According to my aunt and uncle, they had been in a mess when I was born. It was Halloween night eighteen years ago and had been snowing a blizzard. My parents suddenly showed up at Mark and Terisa's house with a newborn baby barely hours old with all of her information.

"_Take care of our baby girl,"_ were the last words that my aunt heard out of her sister's mouth before she left me with them and disappeared into the storm.

Not a day later, police found the bodies of my parents in a boathouse in the middle of the town's reservoir. Their skin had been ripped to shreds and looked like a pack of wolves had gotten to them. They were holding hands to the end. It was a horrible way to die.

I had been told details as a small child when I came home crying to my Mark and Risa one day from fifth grade. A group of kids in my class had gotten a hold of a picture of the crime scene from their fathers work file and shown it to me. I hadn't ever been the same after that. I was more aware that most kids my age. More mature. Knowing what had happened to my parents had made me grow up fast.

So was it possible that the people who had murdered my parents were looking for me?

"She will be better off, Risa. She will know what to expect," Mark rubbed his wife's shoulders. I couldn't be more grateful to him for being reasonable. He had a good point. If I was in danger, I needed to know who, what, where, why, and how of the situation so that I could prevent bad things, like death, from happening.

Risa let out another sob. I let out a breath. She was just as stubborn as I was and good at getting what we wanted, even if we had to go to extremes. This was obviously very hard on her, but I knew that she was firmly agenst me having any knowledge and she was going to do what she could to achieve her goal. But I wasn't going to stand for that. I loved my dear aunt to death, but sometimes you have to be stern –if not a little bitchy—to get important things done.

"I want to know by sundown tomorrow." I thought the best way to get this over with would be to pretend that Risa wasn't even objecting, because she was overruled anyway. Then my plan was to leave and make my point final. But my gaze flickered to the mystery man that had brought along all of this trouble. He was watching me. Studying me as he had before in the restaurant. His black eyes seemed to be endless pools and I was suddenly lost in them and in my own thoughts at the same time.

Who was this Dimitri Baine guy? He came along, dark and foreboding, to tell me that I was being followed by people that meant to harm me and made the mention that I was something. Now I wasn't one to go jumping off to conclusions with a hope that my fairytale books were coming to life, but it sounded… ominous. As if I was something not human.

"We can talk about it when you get back from school," Mark's voice entered my mind and drew me back to reality that was bright in stark contrast to the dark waters that I'd just gotten lost in moments ago.

I shook my head to clear it and looked at Mark with slight worry at the thought of unknown people that were after me crossed my mind. "What about the people—" I stopped myself from finishing the question. That would have been a slip up that would not have ended in a trust point added to my board.

"How much did you hear?" Risa's eyes shot straight to me.

Damn it. She could always see right through me. I sighed. "That there is someone dangerous looking for me and that I'm floating along the same river that my parents were in." I thought it would be best to leave out the hinting that Dimitri Baine had given me, that I might not be human. I had every reason to keep that to myself, I decided, because then people might start thinking that I'd read too much and had finally gone off the deep end. It sure would be the talk of the town for months. Moreover, it was impossible anyway. How could I not be human? It was unquestionable in everything I did and was, right down to my cellular level.

My aunt sighed shakily. "You aren't in as deep as your parents were," she said. "But if we tell you what you… what you want to know then you will be."

My eyes narrowed. She had slipped up there, that little hesitation was more than enough for me to tell. What was she going to say? Had she about said, _what you are? _I was tempted to ask her, but then again I could just be getting paranoid. She might have been looking for a better choice of words and didn't find any. So I kept my mouth shut. Nevertheless, there was a nagging in the back of my head about it now.

"I don't care if knowing this puts me in my parents' place. It's important and you are telling me about it after school tomorrow," I said firmly. I felt like a total bitch acting this way, but I knew that I would be better off knowing… whatever it was that they were going to tell me. More importantly, I wanted to know what I was. Or it would eat me from the inside out. Was I the end of a very long family line that was being murdered? Or some kind of physical key to something? Or just maybe, was it possible agenst all odds/physics/anything-else-sientifical that I was not human?

Risa looked solemn but did not say anything more. Mark looked at me and nodded once, a sign that told me that he thought I needed to know and was fine with pushing it. But that didn't make me feel any less bad about being so pushy. I usually didn't get that way.

My eyes went back to the man that had brought along this problem. He was still watching me. I couldn't read a thing on him face. He showed no more than a blank mask. I remembered the burning sensation that I felt when he touched me. I wondered where that had come from. Maybe it was just because I was reacting to the feeling of a guy touching me, although I couldn't imagine why it happened then and not all the other times at school when the guys there messed around with me. I had a sudden irritated feeling. It was because he was hot and I didn't know him. Note: DIDN'T KNOW HIM. This gave me a reason to not even continue thinking about the situation, because I didn't want to know him because he ticked me off. I had a feeling that all that cutting me off in the restaurant wasn't a onetime thing. He probably did it to everyone all the time.

"Alright, why don't we get some sleep everyone?" Mark asked.

"Yeah," I said blankly, now staring at the floor, my mind elsewhere.

"Goodnight Mark, Terisa," a deep voice broke into my thoughts. I looked up to its owner and his dark eyes held my gaze. "Be careful, Ms. Ellidyr."

Then Dimitri Baine, the mysterious, dark, and extremely attractive man that had irritated the heck out of me in the restaurant tonight turned and walked out my front door.

**Chapter 2**

It was a bright and sunny day as I walked home from highschool the next day. It was a stark contrast from last night. I figured that a warm front came in and blew away the last traces of the storm. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and thanks to the beloved sun's hot rays some of the snow from last night had melted and the streets were clear of it. Birds sang in the trees and the world looked bright and beautiful with the sun to shine off of the melted snow.

Too bad the weather didn't reflect my mood. I had been uneasy, anxious, and jumpy all day. The fact that people were out there looking for me was bad enough, but it made it worse that I didn't know who they were or how they would approach if they did find me. I was checking out what made the littlest sounds and had looked over my shoulder so much that people might think I had a twitch.

I had to be getting paranoid. Surely the… whoever it was that was looking for me wouldn't until I was alone at night, right? I discarded that thought as soon as it entered my mind. There was no reason that they couldn't get me right now, I was alone walking to my house which was miles from the school because I hadn't been able to bring my car, which was in the repair shop.

Dimitri Baine –ugh, he had also been on my mind all frigging day—had said so be careful. But what exactly was I supposed to be careful of? What would these people be more likely to do? Would they simply drive by in a car and pick me off the sidewalk? Would they jump out of the trees to my left? Were they waiting behind that next street corner?

So many questions and no one to ask them to. Worse yet, no one to give me the answers, which I desperately needed right now. It was worse than Chinese Torture! I couldn't stop thinking up questions and each new one felt like a white hot searing coal dropped onto my skin, it burned like no other.

I was so busy thinking that I almost missed something. A sound. It wasn't a big sound. It was very light. Like something moving over the sidewalk. I turned around, half expecting to see someone dragging a blanket over the ground. But there was nothing. Unless you call a kind of blurry spot on my vision something.

I shook my head and turned around. God, I was getting paranoid. Now I was just imagining sounds. What would be next? Get a grip. Nevertheless, I picked up my speed. I had an uneasy feeling, like I was expecting something to grab me from behind at any moment.

But what happened was a cloud passed over the sun. Everything was instantly cold, as if the only heat source had been cut off by the eclipse of the cloud. I shivered and looked up. And my mouth dropped open in surprise. That wasn't _a_ cloud. It was a whole army of looming, black giants in the sky.

What the heck? It had been nice and sunny all day, with no signs of clouds anywhere. Where had this come from? Had there only been a brief space in between this storm and the last?

I rubbed my arms. The temperature had dropped so fast that the water that had once been shining sparkles had crystallized into ice and a biting wind blew straight through my light weight jacket and it felt like daggers of ice were being pierced into my legs, which weren't covered because I was wearing shorts.

My cell phone started ringing. Great, perfect, just what I needed. A reason to have to take my hands out of my pockets. Well this call was going to have to wait because I was trying to keep from getting instant frostbite. I was only a quarter mile from the house now and I could call whoever it was back when I got to the warmth of my nice little spot in front of the fire place.

That's when I heard it again. A faint dragging over the howl of the wind. It was too close. Almost right behind me. There was no way that I was imagining it this time. Because now, it was accompanied by a ragged sucking sound, followed by a sharp rasp. It took me only a second to connect the sound to the image. But when it did, it hit me like a brick wall.

I had recently read the Harry Potter series. Dementors, the guards of the Azkaban Prison, had sounded exactly like this when J.K. Rowling had described them. For a short second two sides of my brain argued with each other. The logical Aly, the one that had her head out of the clouds, was saying, _there is no way that is real, Dementors don't exist!_ The fantasy loving Aly was screaming, _run, run, run! You could die! _Then there was me, who was getting a headache from the mind argument.

I stopped abruptly and turned around and my mouth dropped open. Not an arm's length away from me stood –or rather floated—a ghostly, black shrouded figure. The sounds I'd been hearing were its breathing. I screamed, not that there was any point to it; there was no one to hear me. And if you think that is pathetic, then picture yourself in my situation. I think you would scream too if a creature that was fear itself came out of a fictional book full of magic and monsters and was right in front of you.

I started backwards as quickly as I could without tripping, or slipping on the ice. I had no desire for the space between the dementor andme to decrease. I remembered that dementors sucked the joy and happiness out of all living things and that it made everything freezing cold with its presence. I also remembered exactly what I needed to make a dementor back off, but to do that I needed a wand. And I didn't see a convenient stick lying around either. Life was never that easy. My mind and heart raced the same speed, my hands were shaking uncontrollably and the wind tore through my jacket, freezing me to the marrow.

I gasped as suddenly, a sharp pain shot through my shoulder. It felt like a branding iron had been pressed to the front of my shoulder, searing the skin and leaving behind a brand. I was sure that it was worse than a branding iron when I blacked out from the pain.

When my vision and senses came back I found myself lying on the ground and in front of me, the dementor was lowering its hood. Back up! Crawl away! Get away from it before it sucks out your soul, I screamed inside my head. But I couldn't. The moment I thought of making a move a dry icy chill stole over my hands. I looked down in disbelief. Ice crystals had grown over my hands, rooting me to the ground. But that wasn't one of their powers, how could it be doing this?

I looked back up, straight into the face of my own death.

I sucked in a breath, but was unable to scream. What I saw had frozen every bone, every muscle, every ligament, and I could swear even the very flow of blood in my veins. It was beyond screaming. It was worse than anything our greatest horror flicks have come up with yet.

The creature had pulled back its hood.

That sight would haunt me for the rest of my life, and showed up in many of my nightmares for months after this.

The thing's skin looked like it had been torn, torched, blistered, scabbed, and repeated many times over. It had no eyes or a place for them. The rotted dead skin was stretched over where the eye sockets would have been. It didn't have a nose either, just a flat surface where any bone or cartilage would have been on a human. It had only one place to breathe from, the mouth, for lack of a better word. It was where a human's mouth would have been but I could hardly call it that. There were no lips, or even a shape to it. It was just a gaping hole it the creatures face. It drew closer to me and the smell of century-year-old rotted flesh made me gag.

Oh, dear God, this was it. I was going to die by the hands –or mouth rather—of a monster straight out of a book and I didn't even get to find out what I was! I wanted to start screaming to the Fates, no, no, no I'm too young to die!

Part of me realized that I was going hysterical and I mentally shook myself. "Hope strengthens, fear kills," I breathed. It was a quote from one of my all time favorite books, Darkfever, by Karen Marie Moning. "Hope strengthens, fear kills," I said again and took a deep breath. There was a way to get out of this. All I had to do was think.

But how can you think when all of the horrors of your past are flashing through your mind like a slideshow?

It is moments like these where you would like to be able to think that you have enough steel to take control and win. It is moments like these that many people find themselves faced with their worst nightmares and either overcome them, or die of fright. And it is moments like these that people find what they are truly capable of doing, whether they know they can do it or are finding it out by reflex and instinct.

I would love to tell you that my situation was that I knew I had control, and that I knew that I could take care of this, but then I'd be lying through my teeth. Because I knew that I didn't have control, and I didn't know that I was going to do what I did next.

When the dementors face was close enough my mind had gone blank and the only thing I could hear was a kind of adrenaline rushed buzz. I didn't know what I was doing, but I let my instincts take over from there. My knee came up with quick accuracy and hit right beneath the creature's jaw, making its head snap back. Then I kicked it in the chest as hard as I could and sent it staggering backward. Then I planted my feet and pulled as hard as I could agenst my freezing shackles. But that was a mistake.

Before I could think of fixing it, ice had already closed over my shoes and climbed half way up my calves aswell. If dementors have feelings I would say that this one was pissed. It got colder than I ever thought possible and the air seemed to get thinner, less breathable. I sucked in air like a fish out of water and couldn't get enough oxygen. I felt like I was trying to breathe with a pillow being stuffed agenst my mouth, or being suffocated very slowly and painfully.

Well this was a better thought. At least I would actually be dead, not just a blank humanistic doll without her soul. I rolled my eyes and fought agenst the ice holding me in place. But nothing happened in my favor. It was agenst my favor, to be precise. The ice grew sharp and cut into my wrists and I could feel blood seeping out and freezing on my hands it was so cold. I stopped struggling and the ice stopped moving.

Great, so the dementor was going to make me hold still and die of oxygen starvation, or cut off my hands and make me bleed to death. What to choose, what to choose.

But I wasn't going to have to make that choice.

The purr of an engine and the squeal of tires were music to my ears. The smell of burning rubber was better than Risa's special cooked ham at the Christmas Eve service at church. And the sight of the dementor being blown out of sight was the happiest ending to a horror story that I could have ever chose. It was later on that I would see that it wasn't the ending to my story at all, it was the beginning.

The comparisons that I had made to being saved seemed odd and I decided that the lack of oxygen was starting to affect my brain. Apparently the damn creature wasn't dead, even after being hit by a car or everything would have gone back to normal.

And as if I hadn't been surprised the heck out of enough today, Dimitri Baine stepped out of the car. My mouth dropped open. I hadn't expected to ever see him again after he walked out my door last night.

He was out in one swift motion that made me realize that not only was he big and strong, but he was as lithe as a jungle cat. Without even a glance at me he slammed the door shut and walked around to where the creature was hovering eerily.

If my mouth hadn't already been open my jaw would have hit the floor. He was walking toward it without hesitation.

What in the world did he think he was doing? Was he crazy?

"Saving your life," he answered without turning.

I wasn't aware that I had voiced my thoughts aloud, the oxygen was making my mind cloudy and my vision wasn't so clear as I watched the scene play out before me.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion. The man was holding a sword at his side and was standing ready to anticipate any move the dementor was going to make.

I gasped in a breath as I tried to clear the black spots from my vision. I could hear my heartbeat. Like a drum in my ears.

Thump.

The dark creature's hand flashed out.

Thump.

The sword flashed deadly silver and was thrust through the creature's stomach.

Thump.

Then it twisted and glided through the air and sliced through flesh.

My vision went blank and I felt myself fall back.

I tried to fight. I couldn't go now. I had just been saved. I sucked in desperately needed air but felt myself being dragged under cold, black waves of a harsh sea.

The last thing I was aware of was Dimitri Baine's voice. It seemed faint and far away, like he was talking from across the street. But his words were my lifeboat and I held onto them with everything I had left.

"_I've got you, Aly. You're safe now."_

* * *

What happened after that I was never entirely sure. I know I blacked out, and woke up once and I was in a car that felt like it was going extremely fast. I'd tried to look around, get my bearings, but I passed out again. When I woke up again I found myself lying on a soft bed, complete with feather pillows and silk blankets that were crimson. The room was painted a soft cream color with trim as red as the sheets.

I sat up slowly, trying and failing to avoid a blood rush to the head, and looked around. The window was open and sunshine was reflecting off of a beautifully polished hardwood floor, giving the room a golden glowing effect. By the looks and furnishing of the room the owner had serious money.

Flipping my legs out from under the blankets, I stood and tentatively stretched up on my toes. I was wearing a pair of short turquoise shorts and a low cut black tank top instead of the clothes that I … had been… wearing…

Apparently the lack of oxygen had stalled my brain longer that I thought it would, because everything came back to me in a rush then. The cold, the dementor, Dimitri Baine coming to save my life…

Speaking of him, he must have been the one who brought me here—wherever here was. All I remembered was hearing his words, _"You're alright, your safe."_

I sat back down. My brain felt like it was in a scrambler. I had almost been killed by a dementor… how in the world was that possible? Had the people that were after me really gotten to me and drugged me? And I had somehow come up with a whacky scene of a dementor? My mind was conflicting again. Logic Aly and Fantasy Aly were screaming at the top of their lungs, trying to get my attention. Logic was saying that there was no way that had happened, stuff like that didn't happen in real life and I knew it. I had to have been drugged or something. Fantasy was saying that I saw what I had seen and that I would remember if I'd been drugged and that it really had happened and I needed to realize that.

I shook my head and told the two to shut up because my head was starting to hurt. I didn't want to think about it anymore, it had been horrific even if it was drug induced. But they wouldn't stop. I felt like there was an angle and a devil Aly on each shoulder arguing over who was right and it was really starting to get in my nerves.

Have you ever had a conversation with yourself? If not then you don't think like a normal person. If you have then you understand why I was getting irritated. I didn't know what to do. Both sides made sense but only one was correct. I had to find out. I so wanted to reject the scene that had played out with the dementor, but my other side wouldn't let it go. Soon everything was going to change and I really would only have an Angle Aly and a Devil Aly to argue in my ears, thank God.

I realized that my wrists were wrapped up around where I had been cut by the ice. Well at least whoever had brought me here had been nice enough to tape me up. I just wished that they would have left an explanatory note that would tell me what had really happened. I stood up and faced a mirror that was hanging on the wall across from the door and inspected the rest of my body for injury.

My legs looked okay, but I had a bruise on my knee where I thought I'd hit the dementor and kicked it away (I refused to argue whether the situation had really happened). It looked like my arms had gotten the worse of the damage. I walked closer and did a quick once over to see if I had gotten any more injury and something caught my eye.

There was a mark on my left shoulder.

"What the…?" I trailed off as I pulled my tank top strap to the side. Where in the world had that come from? I looked at it more closely. It was an intricate pattern and had the basic general shape of one of the old mid-evil shields. The pattern inside of it was as intricate as a spider's web and made no sense to me whatsoever. It was barely noticeable, only a shade or two darker than my own skin tone, but it was enough for me to notice. It was roughly the size of a fifty cent piece and a memory flashed back to me. Searing pain… felt like a brand…

Aww fudge. Risa and Mark were going to kill me if they saw it before I could explain. They had been thoroughly agenst tattoos, and cussing, and all of that junk. I was too, which is why I had little substitute words for cuss words. The f-word was fudge, crap was jazz, ass was ace, and so on.

I could see it now, my aunt and uncle worrying because I hadn't come home and then show up with what looked like a tattoo on my shoulder… it wasn't a pretty sight because it consisted on a bonfire and boiling oil. They'd cook my like a French fry.

And that's when I noticed the figure in the mirror. There in the doorway stood my savior, Dimitri Baine. I spun around to face him. He was leaning agenst the door frame with his arms crossed over his chest. It was the first time I had seen him without his duster on and holy heck I had been right. He looked like the kind of man that took his workouts seriously. He was muscular, but along with that he was big. His forearm was the size of my calf (and that's saying something because my calf is pure muscle and barely wrap both of my hands around it).

He was wearing a dark blue silk shirt that hinted at how good of shape he was in and a pair of black pants that were complete with black boots that had a wicked silver heel-toe pattern on them. The sight of him hit me like a bucket of ice water. He seemed to be buzzing with an energy that said power was his main element.

But it was all forgotten when my two shoulder angles started screaming the same thing. _Ask him what happened!!!!!_ I didn't hesitate on that order. "What happened?" I asked immediately.

"What do you think happened?" he asked me back.

"I don't know if what I thought happened really happened," I said cautiously. My shoulder angles were arguing and I still had no clue what to think about all of this. I really wanted to reject the thought of magical creatures popping out of books that were fantasy because that kind of thing just didn't happen. I learned right here that it was extremely hard to accept something that you were taught your whole life just didn't happen.

I'm sure that I looked as confused as I felt as I took a breath and ran a hand through my hair to brush it out of my face and then sat back down of the bed. I tried to collect my thoughts. I knew that I'd seen the dementor. And I knew that it had just about killed me. But I couldn't wrap my mind around it. How many times had I walked that same path home and never saw anything out of the ordinary? And then Life just decided to throw a deadly magical creature at me, what was I supposed to think about that? I sure as heck didn't know.

I looked up at my rescuer who was still in the same position and wearing the same expression. Should I tell him what I saw? Would he think I had lost my mind? Or would he tell me that I hadn't? I realized that I had actually cared if he thought I was crazy there for a second. I changed that quickly. Why did I care what he thought of me? I didn't even know him.

With that out of the way I decided that I would tell him what I saw, because he could tell me better than these injuries if what I had saw had really happened or not. "I _think_," I put a heavy emphasis on the word, "that I almost got killed by a dementor and then you saved me." I said this slowly, assessing his reaction.

But there was no reaction. His face was as serious as ever. He watched me for a moment longer and then turned and walked out of the room. What, no '_you're crazy_' or '_you read too much_'?

"Hey, wait!" I scrambled off the bed after him. "You not going to tell me if I'm crazy or not?" When he said nothing and kept walking I got irritated. "Why didn't you take me back to my house?"

He stopped so abruptly that I ran into him and felt like I bounced off of a brick wall. He turned around and I was glaring up at him. If he was going to have the same attitude that he did in the restaurant then I was going to be driven insane. He looked at me like a young boy does after he's caught a frog.

"Let's just put it this way, Dorothy. You're not in Kansas anymore," he said flatly.

I backed up. The energy around him was giving me a creepy feeling. "What are you talking about?"

"I didn't take you to your home because I brought you to Vail."

I felt the color drain from my face. "What? Why?"

He continued walking down the hall and I stood there for a moment, frozen. Then I shook my head and ran after him again. "Why did you bring me to Vail?" I sounded mildly hysterical. I have a phobia of big cities. Whenever Mark and Risa had took me on a trip and we went to big cities I had been jumpy and scared all the time.

He ignored me and kept going. Ugh I was getting tired of this already. I had too many questions and if I didn't get answers like, now, I was going to explode. "What happened after you saved me?" I demanded.

Obviously I'd blacked out, but how had I not woken up? It took at least three hours to get to Vail from my little town. I couldn't have been out for that long, could I have?

I noticed that we had reached a room that looked like the lobby of an expensive hotel without the glass doors and front desk. It was beautifully furnished with leather sofas and love seats and they were all gathered around a fireplace. The room was painted in a lush forest green with gold trim and it gave me the feeling that I was in a forest full of pine trees. It even smelled like pine and as I followed Baine closer to the fire I saw that it was pine logs that were burning.

He sat down on one of the couches nearest to the fire. I stood there with a look of disbelief and irritation on my face. How dare he ignore me? He would rather crash on a sofa by the nice warm fire. That didn't set to well with me. I think I'd gone through enough for a few answers here. I was freaked out because of the dementor and now I was mad because he wouldn't give me answers. It was a breaking point. I felt like Little Red Ridinghood alone in the woods knowing that the Big Bad Wolf was on the run, because suddenly my reality wasn't what I'd thought it had been.

Thinking about my situation and the fact that I was in a big town full of rich people and freaks, that my thoughts about magical creatures had been dead wrong—something that I still didn't understand—and that I was on my own here made me feel helpless and I wanted to just sit down and cry like a little kid lost in a supermarket.

I needed an anchor, and how ironic that it started with the same letter as the word _answers,_ gee could that be a hint? I sat down on the furthest couch away from him and put my head in my hands. I was lost and floating through the ocean. I had been attacked by a dementor, taken to a big city by a guy that had saved my life but I had only met a day ago. I felt like frigging jazz. I wonder… "Do you have any chocolate?"

"That doesn't really work," Baine's voice was too close. I jumped back and teetered wildly on the back of the couch before I fell onto the floor. When I got back up I found him occupying the same couch that I had been. He looked amused.

"Do not do that again," I said, breathless. How had he gotten from over there to right next to me without me even noticing a thing?

"You wanted answers, I was giving you one."

"No not that." I had had too many occasions where things sneak around and jump out at me to scare me when I was a kid. It was another one of the things I tried not to let bother me but right now I was on edge and freaked out.

"There was no sneaking involved," he said and stood back up.

I opened my mouth to tell him that there had been even though he hadn't intended it but realized that I hadn't actually _said_ anything about sneaking in the first place. While I hesitated he spoke.

"You said that you saw a dementor. What do you make of that?"

What was he a shrink? I didn't know what to make of it. I could be crazy, delusional, or dreaming for all I knew. "I don't know what to think," I said, frustrated. "I want to say it was all a nightmare but then I have these"—I held up my injured wrists—"proving me wrong."

"Sit back down, Ms. Ellidyr," he said.

I walked back around the couch and sat on the edge furthest away from Baine without taking my eyes off of him. He was giving me the feeling that I was standing next to a trained tiger, powerful and deadly and could turn on me any second. I didn't trust it one bit, even though he had saved my life.

"Can you please tell me what is going on?" I was dying from lack of answers and he was the one who had presented the problem to me in the first place, so he should be responsible for filling me in. "And if not then can you take me back to Mark and Terisa so that they can tell me?" I bet that whatever they were going to tell me when I got home was connected to this.

"I told you that you would get answers eventually, and because your aunt and uncle aren't here to give them to you, I will," Baine said.

My eyes narrowed. He really expected me to believe that I could trust him to give me straight answers after what had happened all of the rest of the times that I'd asked him questions? He had evaded me more than answering me. "What do I have to do?" I asked warily.

"Tell me what you want to know," he said walking closer.

I fidgeted on the couch. The raw power that I could sense in him was electrifying and made me uneasy. He sat on the chair across from me. I couldn't believe that he was just going to give me answers. I half expected for him to make me do something in order to get them. "Everything," I said. "I want to know everything."

"It would take a long time to tell you everything I know, Ms. Ellidyr."

I gave him a dry look. "I meant about what happened, what I am, all of that."

His gaze flashed to my shoulder and then back to my eyes. "You are a Sentinel, Ms. Ellidyr," he said, watching me closely.

I guess I was a little tense because I let out a small breath. A sentinel? I remembered seeing that in my favorite, much loved collage thesaurus as another word that meant guard. "A guard of what?"

"A guardian of the human race," he answered, assessing my reaction closely.

My only reaction was a frown. "A guardian of the human race from what exactly?"

"What happened to you last night?"

"I told you. I got attacked by a— oh." Sometimes I think like a blonde, and things take a minute to catch up. "You're saying that I'm a protector of the human race from monsters?" I said with a laugh. Not only did that sound absolutely ridiculous, but the thought of me protecting anybody from anything was hilarious. I can't do a pull up to save my life, let alone anyone else's.

"Not monsters necessarily," Baine corrected me. "From the Magi people. More specifically, creatures that would prey on humans which is agenst our laws."

I watched him blankly, waiting for him to be serious. The problem is: he is so dead serious that I can't ever tell the difference. "So I wasn't imagining the dementor thing then." It wasn't a question, it was finality. He nodded once, just an inch down and back.

I looked back at the floor, trying to decide whether I should be extremely happy about that, or scared to death. On one hand I always think about what my life would be like if magical creatures existed and now I had the chance to find out. On the other hand, there were so many scary things in the magic world that I could very possibly begin living a nightmare, literally. Maybe, for now at least, I would stay noncommittal and see for myself how much I would like it. And first things first, if I was going to live in a new world, I should know some background history on it to that I could fit in and not look like a total newbie.

"Okay," I breathed. "Then tell me about this magical world that I am supposed to protect the humans from."

"The magic world, as you call it, isn't really a separate world. It is all one; the Humans just can't see the whole. There is a separation between the Humans and the Magi beings that keeps them from interacting with each other. The Humans can't see the Magi beings either."

"Wait, if there is a separation between them then why do we have to protect them?" I asked.

"There are ways to get around the separation and get to the Humans. You would be surprised how many of the weakest Magi stumble upon the way across," he answered.

Oh. That actually made sense. "How many different kinds of creatures are there? Are there really as many as books lead us to believe?"

"There are fewer kinds of creatures that have major sentient ability," he explained. "Like there are different races of Humans, there are different races of Magi. Like Humans have their animals, the Magi have theirs too, only they have magic abilities."

My eyes widened. That was fascinating. "What different races are there?"

He glanced at a gold and platinum watch on his wrist before answering me, and when he did answer it ticked me off. "Next."

"What?"

"Next question."

"What do you mean, _next question_," I frowned.

"It is an indication that you ask me your next question, Ms. Ellidyr."

"Why can't you answer that question?"

"I have places to go and people to see, Ms. Ellidyr, and that question takes time answering. If you are going to waste my time arguing I might as well get an early start on things."

"I thought you were going to answer all of my questions," I said. What was he talking about? Who was he going to see where? And why?

"Correction. I never said the word all anywhere in that sentence."

I ran through the sentence when he had told me that I'd get answers and saw that he was right. But so what? I still wanted answers and I needed more than just a few now that I was partially informed. I tried a different tactic.

"Well if you would just answer my question then we wouldn't be sitting here arguing about wasting time and actually wasting your time," I said sweetly.

He smiled dryly. "It would only bring up more questions that you would beg me to answer."

"Who said anything about begging?" I have an issue with people who would think I would beg to get my way, because it is dead wrong. I fight for my way. Begging is the last thing on my list and it's only there as a last resort.

"Because you would work down your list of persuasive ways and none of them would work on me a single bit, yet again wasting more of my time," Baine said and stood up.

I stood up as well. "Fine. If you won't answer me then I'll go home and find someone who will." Mark and Terisa would tell me everything, as they'd told me they would. I would have to just hitch a ride all the way back across the state of Colorado and get home to ask them myself. "Where are my other clothes and my cell phone? I need to call them and tell them that I got dragged to Vail by you."

His look was that of pure ice. "Your aunt and uncle are missing, Ms. Ellidyr."

My mind took a second to process his words, but then I exploded. "What?!"

"Mark and Terisa were found missing after I saved your life," Dimitri Baine's voice was calm and smooth now, as if it was no big deal that my only living family had disappeared.

I'm not one to go off ranting and yelling to get answers. I don't see the point to it, it never gets me anywhere. So I stared down at my hands that were on my lap. This was a lot to deal with all at once. I had just been told that I was a guardian of all humans from magical creatures. That was a battle within itself. Whether I should be happy about it or not, whether I could do it in the first place. It also changed my whole perspective on life, where I had grown up thinking that it was all fake and I wanted it to be real. But now it was real. That was a turn around that I had never expected. I suppose that if that was the only thing that I had to deal with I would be completely fine. But then Baine had thrown another harsh ingredient into the mix. My aunt and uncle had gone missing. That was something that scared the living heck out of me. A dementor had been after me. What had gone after them? I wasn't stupid enough to think that it wasn't a magi creature that had taken them. It was too much of a coincidence. But the nerve wracking thing was: the dementor had meant to kill me. Had my aunt and uncle's abductors been given the same instructions? That scared me more that you could ever know.

I took a breath and let it out slowly. I can't handle this. How much longer before I hold up my hands and say 'Hey I didn't ask for this job, I quit'? I blinked back tears as I tried to get a foothold on reality. Baine had been right when he had called me Dorothy. I'd been swept off to the Land of Oz and I had a bad feeling that there wasn't going to be a yellow brick road to follow. I gave up on the tears. They were coming whether I liked it or not. I was way out of my league here.

I felt Baine's hand on my shoulder, a light touch that seemed hesitant. I don't know what state of mind I was in. I had to be losing it. Because what I did just blew my mind. I leaned agenst the mysterious, aggravating man that had saved my life and cried. I couldn't understand what made me do it, but when I did his arms around me made me feel warmer, and slightly dulled the ice that was running through my veins. I felt… safe. Somewhere in the back of my mind, my thoughts changed slightly about him. Sure, I have no clue who this guy really is, but he was there for me for one of the first changes in my life, and that was going to make a difference in the long run.

I don't know how long I cried. I cried for my aunt and uncle, for how lost I felt, for how pissed I was about everything. But when the water works finally shut themselves off that burning electric feeling came back and the mark on my shoulder stung like a fresh would with lemon juice in it.

I pulled back and rubbed it, trying to get it to stop. "What is this from?" I asked Baine. It was probably a magical mark, because it looked like I had gotten a tan while I wore a sticker. But it hurt. And was obviously what had made me black out while I faced the dementor. And now it hurt again.

He was silent and I looked up at him, wondering what was taking him so long to answer me, or if he was going to answer me at all. But when I looked at him he was staring at the mark, studying it as if he was looking at every single line. "Baine," I tried again, slowly this time. "What is it from?"

His eyes shifted from my shoulder to my own eyes. "It's a Sentinel mark. It usually glows a certain color when they use their powers, otherwise only other Sentinels can see it.

"Oh, is that why yours looks like a tattoo to me?"

"No, I traced over it and made it a tattoo."

"Oh," I didn't continue, I was studying the look on his face. It wasn't a 'hiding his emotions' look. It was more of a 'concentrating on something other than what he was talking about' look. "Are you okay?" I asked.

He looked at me again. "I'm fine, why?"

"You looked like your mind was somewhere else," I shrugged.

"I have a meeting to get to," he said and stood up and looked at a gold and platinum watch on his wrist, "And I spent more time than I should have there."

"What is the meeting for?" I asked, steering away from the subject of what just happened. I didn't want to think about it right now.

"It is concerning your aunt and uncle," he said and walked out into the hall and turned to the staircase that was on the right.

I stared after him for a second and then followed after him. "What? Can I go? What are you going to do there? When are you leaving? I have to go get dressed." I shot off the questions and turned around to go back to the room that I had woken up in hoping that the clothes that I had been wearing would be in there but Baine's hand closed around my wrist and jerked me to a stop.

"Do you even remember the way back to the room?" he asked, raising a brow.

I opened my mouth to tell him of course I did, but then shut it because the answer was a no. I had followed him through quite a few doors and hallways to get here and hadn't paid the slightest bit of attention.

"That's what I thought," he said. "Besides, even if you did, that wasn't the room that you're going to be staying in while you stay here."

He was giving me a room, so he intended to keep me here. Why?

"I also didn't have time to get your clothes yet, and I don't think that what you are wearing right now would be appropriate attire." He looked me up and down for a moment and then closed his eyes and let go of my wrist. My heart skipped. The look on his face before he closed his eyes had caught me off guard. Let me just note right now that as I went through highschool I never had anyone make a comment on me looking anything less than cute. Even though some people thought I was weird, I still caught eyes as I walked through the halls. I had a good figure and even though I never played it up, most guys still thought I was hot. Baine's eyes had just confirmed that fact, and he was what, in his late twenties or early thirties?

"You're staying here," he said in a smooth tone.

"No I'm not," I said flatly. "This is about Mark and Risa. I am going." I didn't mention that I thought that if I went I would meet more people that could tell me more about what I was than what Baine had.

"Yes you are," he argued.

"Why?" I crossed my arms. "Give me three good reasons that I should stay."

He turned and started up the stairs. "One: because you don't have any normal clothes. Two: I'm not sure I want this particular group of people knowing that you are with me yet. Three: because I said so."

"I said _good_ reasons," I said following after him. This time I paid attention to my surroundings and where we were going. I had no desire to get lost in this place. The staircase we climbed went passed two floors and stopped at the fourth floor where we continued down a hall that went left and right from the ending of the stairs, which was in the middle.

"Those are good reasons," Baine said as I followed him down the hall past a big set of heavy looking double doors made of polished oak with gold colored handles.

"The first two are, I suppose, but the last one sucks," I told him as he stopped at a door on the far end of the hallway.

He pushed it open. "It is the only reason that you should need," he said, walking into the room on the other side.

I snorted. God he was arrogant. And he sounded like he was trying to be my boss or something, ordering me around like I would actually listen to him. "Well it's not," I said, shrugging. I wasn't going to let him treat me like a little kid. It ticked me off more than him not answering my questions did.

Irritation flashed across his handsome face, only making him look more intriguing. "You are staying here, Ms. Ellidyr, and that's final."

"The only way I'm staying is if you make me," I told him. I was going because he couldn't make me do anything. I didn't care what he said. I was going with him to that meeting. I could be helping find my aunt and uncle! That wasn't an opportunity that I wasn't about to pass up any time soon.

"If I have to," he answered.

I laughed. He sounded so sure of himself. And it pissed him off that I didn't believe him. Baine must be the kind of man that everyone listens to and doesn't contradict. "I'd like to see what you plan to do."

"I doubt that," he told me.

I bypassed the dark note in his voice. Nothing he said was going to make me stay. But I missed the loophole in my logic. "You just say that because you can't—"

My words cut off with a shriek as I was suddenly turned upside down. I had no idea what had just happened, it could have been another dementor for all I knew, until I opened my eyes.

Baine had slung me over his shoulders without a problem like a sack of potatoes and was carrying me into the room.

As soon as I saw the dark blue material I huffed out a sigh. Risa had always told me to hope for the best but prepare for the worst, and I sure had prepared for the worst. I was ready to open my eyes and look into a dementor's face again. I was relieved to see that it was just Baine – not that I was really happy about this, but because it wasn't a dementor that could suck the life out of me, nothing life threatening here. I would soon learn how wrong I was about that thought.

"What do you think you're doing?" I said, disbelief coloring my voice. "Put me down!"

"You insisted on arguing with me," he said and shrugged as if he wasn't carrying a 132 pound girl over his shoulder. "So I'm making you stay." He dumped me on the bed.

I sat up in a flash. "This is so not fair."

"Whoever said life was fair was a good liar," he muttered under his breath. "I don't have to be fair. I get my way because I can make it happen."

"But you're twice as big as me!"

"That is why you're on the bed." He walked back over to the door and turned to face me again.

I stood up and followed him. He was holding a key on his left hand. "You can't just lock me up like a bird in a cage," I protested. "What am I supposed to eat?" This was completely off subject but I was sure I wasn't going to get anything to eat locked inside of a room and who knows how long the meeting will last?

An amused look flashed across his face for a moment and only ticked me off more. "I'm sure you'll figure it out," he said.

I glared at him. This was stupid. What the fudge was I supposed to do to pass the time? Sit and stare at the wall?

He smiled darkly, but I could hardly call it a smile. It reminded me more of a tiger showing me its teeth. "Don't worry. You will have plenty to entertain you while I'm gone. The room through that door," he pointed to another polished oak door on the left wall of the room, "is the library. I laid out a few books that you might find interesting."

"I'm not worried about being bored," I told him, despite my recent thoughts. "I'm worried to death about Mark and Risa! I want to help find them." I was hoping to catch him off guard and bolt out into the hallway, but he caught me around the waist and pulled me back into the room. It unnerved me because I barely felt any strain in the muscles of his arm as he did this.

"Right now you can't do anything for them except listen to me," his voice was soft but cold and it gave me the chills because his lips were at my ear. "You don't have any experience and I don't want anyone to know that you are with me yet because they might find an interest in the last person in the family line that keeps up the separation, and that you are young and pretty doesn't help one bit."

My jaw dropped. He just said what? No, that's not important right now. I was the last one in a line that held the worlds apart? That meant that some of the people he was going to see were interested in _using_ me... I shuddered. I didn't want to go there. I tried to wiggle out of his hold, but he just tightened his grip so much that I could barely inflate my lungs to get a breath. I stopped with an accusatory huff. What was this guy? He was still barely even using any muscle but he was going to smother me if he didn't stop.

"Let me go or I'm going to suffocate," I gasped and he loosened up, but didn't let go. I really wanted to get all the way across the room from him right now, because again the lack of oxygen had to have me losing my mind because I was suddenly thinking what all those muscles looked like without a shirt. "Who exactly are you going to meet?" I asked to take my mind off of it.

"Someone who might know what happened to your aunt and uncle," he allowed.

"If they are so concerned about whatever you just said then why don't they just protect me instead of… using me?" I'd figured that the Sentinels were the good guys, being the protectors of humans and all that.

Baine laughed a low, dark sound. It sent chills through my body. "The Sentinels aren't the same kind of people they once were," he said dryly. "Just like the humans, the people that held great amounts of power wanted more. Many of them turned to the Black Market looking for lost relics that the Elders created to help in the making of the world. People got jealous of other's findings and begged, stole, and killed to get what they wanted. People lost trust in everyone around them." There was bitterness in his voice. He sounded as if he knew this from personal experience. Why did that not surprise me? The size of the house would have been the only clue I needed to see that he had money and power. My shoulders dropped and I stared at the reflection in the mirror across the room from us.

"They are still concerned about keeping the humans safe," he continued, but as he said that he sounded resentful. "I'm sure it would cross their minds to just protect you, but then they would make up the excuse that it would be safer if there was more than one in the bloodline when they got their eyes on you."

Fire coursed through my veins at the tone in his voice and I found myself wondering about not only what those muscles would look like without a shirt but what they would feel—WHOA! Not cool! Where did that come from?

I shook my head and tried to escape from his arms again, and found it just as impossible as before. "Why would they turn agenst each other like that?" I asked. I might as well get some answers while he was giving them.

"Power does things to people's heads. It makes them crave more, and jealous if others have the same or greater amount than they do."

"Then why would they turn agenst their friends? It would make more sense if they helped each other out, wouldn't it?" This was something that had been nagging at me since Baine told me about it.

"In the past eighteen years, many of the strongest Sentinels were stabbed in the back and there were trails of evidence that lead back to their old friends. It happened so much that it taught all of us to watch our backs and trust no one."

Then how do I know that I can trust him? Was he in the mix with all of the black market, power hungry people too? If not then why was he going to meet them? "Okay, I get your point," I said. "Can you let me go now, please? I promise I won't tag along." I had no desire to be forced to carry on my bloodline.

"I'm not sure I can trust you on that," he said. "You sound like you want more than just your aunt and uncle back."

I had to think about what he meant about that. But once it came to me it was obvious why he was being careful. He thought I wanted revenge. Revenge is a feeling that can pull you to above and beyond your limits. I laughed. "I'm not the kind of person that kills for pleasure," I told him. "Besides, it's you I shouldn't be trusting. You are holding me here agenst my will."

His reflection smiled grimly. "Touché," he murmured. Then his strong arms released me and his lips were at my ear again. "Goodnight, Ms. Ellidyr," he whispered in a tone that made me want to melt. By the time I whipped around to face him he was gone and the door was shut.

I was left gaping at thin air. My heart had skipped at the brush of his lips and his tone probably could have seduced a nun. I shook my head went over to the door. It was locked.

"Damn it, Baine," I cursed and hit the heavy door hard enough that I rattled it severely on its hinges. How could he still lock me in? I didn't want to go anywhere now. Well except maybe to check out the house and find the kitchen. I hadn't realized how hungry I was until I found out that he was going to lock me in here.

I leaned back agenst the door and looked at the room I was in. It was painted soft peach and cream colors and had a mural painted on one wall of a beach. The bed was centered with its head agenst one wall and was made up of silk blankets that were the color of the Caribbean Sea, and from when Baine threw me on the bed it made it actually look like real water. Like the other room, this one has a hardwood floor that reflected the golden rays of a setting sun. But these rays were coming through a beautiful set of sliding French doors that opened out onto a little balcony with a cute little bird bath and a table and chairs.

I walked closer to inspect the little patio and what I saw there I couldn't decide whether I was going to be happy about this or wierded out. There was a box of Chinese food on the table. I smelled like sweet and sour chicken as I opened the doors and stepped out. There was a note on the table under a glass of iced tea, written in the best handwriting I'd ever seen.

Hope you like Chinese, if not it's your loss – DB

I scowled at the note. Yeah that was real gentlemen like. Luckily for me I did like Chinese. In fact, I liked anything that I could identify as long as it wasn't fish. But that didn't make me any happier about the note. He should get in a car wreck on the way back, I thought as I pulled out a piece of chicken and took a bite.

As I ate I watched the sun set over orange, brown and yellow leaves of the forest that was on the edge of the property. It was a beautiful sight and I probably would have enjoyed it more if I had been on a nice vacation with my family rather than missing and worrying about them to death and feeling like a captive.

I sat very still long after I had finished my meal and stared into the forest. It was dark, but there was a nearly full moon and it was very bright. I could see shapes moving around on the edge of the trees, but I couldn't make out anything. I looked away from the shapes to the outline of a mountain in the distance and sighed. I felt more at home right then than I would for a long time.

I finally went back into the room and threw away the box. Then I turned and looked at the oak door that Baine had said lead to the library. I wondered how big the room was and was curious what kind of books a man like Baine had. And what could he have put out that I would be interested in?

I crossed the room and turned the handle, expecting to find a room about the same size as the one I was in with a few book cases and desks. What I found made my mouth drop open. The room was round and about seventy feet in diameter. It had two floors and the ceiling was made of domed glass that showed dozens of bright constellations. But that's not what amazed me. The room was filled with books. Literally. Along every wall was a polished bookcase that

went up so high that I couldn't touch the top even if I stood on my tiptoes (not that this was much anyway, I am only 5'5"). Not an inch of wall showed, it was either a book or a bookcase. There were ladders that moved on oiled rollers and a spiral staircase made of iron that wound around a pole all the way up to the second floor. More shelves stood around the room that were short enough that I could reach the top with the help of one of the stools that were around the room.

There was a circular table in the middle of the room that had a gap so that you could walk through and get in the middle of the table. Around it was several lamps and there was a single one on, shining on a stack of books.

This must have been what Baine had been talking about, the books to keep me "entertained." I walked over to the table and sat down and picked up the one that was on top. It was hardcover, but was blank all the way around. I frowned and flipped it open to the first page. Instead of a title page or anything that would show up in a normal book the first page was covered in intricately written words in beautiful penmanship.

It looked like it was some kind of diary, or journal, but it had words and their definitions, and it wasn't alphabetized. I read the first entry.

Sentinels— Guardians of the Humans. A Sentinel's Power awakens after eighteen years of birth when the *Spell of Separation no longer has any effect on them. Once they come of age, a Sentinel gains slightly higher senses than a human can have. Every Sentinel has use of Telepathy to an extent (how much they know is a gift to them given with their Powers, some are more gifted than others). Each also gains a special ability of their own. That ability is fueled by the strength of the one using it. The longer the Power is worked with, the stronger the Sentinel becomes.

Well that was interesting. So the separation between the Humans and Magi was really a spell. And the spell wore off on the Sentinels when they turned eighteen. I wanted to know more about it. There was a star by the name of the spell, which should mean that there was a definition for it in here somewhere. From the lack of alphabetization it made me have to look through every page. But on the nineteenth (and last) page, halfway down, I found it.

Spell of Separation—the boundary that separated the Humans from the Magi beings. History has it that the Humans came to the Elders of the world asking for protection. They wanted to not be food for the Magi beings. The Elders created a spell that would separate the Humans from the Magic Realm and let them live away from it. The spell kept a barrier between the humans and the Magi, not letting the Humans see or touch the Magi and vice versa. But some of the Magi beings saw the Humans as irresistible and found a way to get through the spell. The Elders appointed themselves as Sentinels, guardians over the Human race and kept any Magi being that managed to cross over from taking a Human life. They appointed their children and bloodlines as Sentinels, and made them the only exception to the spell. The Sentinels could see and interact with both worlds so they would be able to protect the Humans. To do the Spell, there had to be a blood tie to it. As long as that blood lived and ran strong in descendants the spell would keep up. It was one of the most dominant families that volunteered to do this. The Ellidyr clan upholds the Spell to this day.

I stared at the page for a long time. The last sentence echoed through my mind. _The Ellidyr clan upholds the Spell to this day… _I was the last of my bloodline. I was the only thing standing between the Humans and the Magi Beings. If I died, I would be responsible for handing the Humans over on a silver plate to the Magic World. That was a responsibility that I didn't know if I could handle. The ultimate protection that I could give the Humans was staying alive. But we weren't immortal! How was I going to accomplish that?

The answer came to me as quickly as I asked the question. But I was only eighteen I was so not going to have a kid at eighteen. And even doing that would mean not waiting to find Mr. Right. I crossed out that option. It was so not going to happen, I have my priorities.

I really didn't want to think about that at the moment. I shook my head and pushed the thought from my mind. I would forget about it. This wasn't going to be a problem until I was older. Then I would worry about it.

I put the journal aside, I would read through it later, and picked up the next book on the pile. This book had a blue cover with aqua green corners. The title was written in gold: _Sentinel Lines Volume E2._

My mouth dropped open. No way! This book held my heritage! I didn't know any of my other family besides Mark and Risa and they weren't Sentinels as far as I knew. I wondered if there was a way to change from Sentinel to being Human, because if both of my parents had been, then Terisa would have been because she was my mother's sister.

I flipped open the front cover and found a worn table of contense. Last names were listed there in alphabetical order with a range of numbers next to it. "Ellidyr, Ellidyr," I murmured under my breath, searching the names. "Aha there you are," I grinned as I found my own last name. Pages 753-799. Whoa, that is a lot of history. This is going to be interesting.

I flipped through the book to page 799. If I was the last one alive, then I was going to be at the very end and my parents would be above me.

At the top of each page was a date for which I was grateful, it would make my work much easier. It turn out that our family lines went way back into the old old days. Back when the Magi Creatures were know to the Humans and before the Sentinels came about.

But for the moment I want interested in that. I was focused completely on the branch of the tree that read Quin Ellidyr—Cassidy Daeron.

My eyes filled with tears. As I looked down at the young faces of my parents, and my grandparents, and aunts and uncles and cousins that I never knew. Risa's picture ended up being on my mom's family page and it had a blue line through hers, and according to the key it meant that she married a Human and stopped using her powers. I couldn't believe it. My mom's side of the family was small though and I found that they had all been killed in battle - a stripe of read through the picture. But I found that it was honorable to die defending the Humans. I sat there for a moment, looking at the faces of the family that I would never know and an idea popped into my head.

I shut the book and looked at its spine, looking for some kind of dui-decimal system and found it on a sticker on the bottom. That surprised me mildly. Baine wasn't kidding when he said this was a library, he even had it catalogued. He didn't seem like the kind of guy that would do it himself though. He probably hired someone to do it.

I stood up and walked to the panel of light switches, flipped them on, and then looked around the library, walking from shelf to shelf, looking for numbers that matched the ones on the spine. I found what I was looking for about five minutes later on one of the really big bookcases that covered the wall. The whole bottom two rows of the section was covered with the complete set of family lines. It reminded me of those _World Book Encyclopedias_ that every school has. I wondered painstakingly how often Baine got these updated.

I ran my fingers down the spines until I found the first one with a golden B on the spine. I flipped it open and began looking for Dimitri Baine. What can I say? Wouldn't you be curious about your host too?

I scanned the table of contense for his last name, but to my surprise; I found nothing about him at all. I frowned. There had to be a mistake here somewhere. How could he not be? He was a Sentinel.

But there was nothing. Not even when I tried a different spelling could I find him. I closed the book and slipped it back into its place on the shelf. How could he not be in the books? The only way I could think of was if he had lied to me about being Sentinel, but what would he gain from that? But there was no way that he couldn't be a Sentinel because he could see my mark.

I pushed it out of my head, at the moment not really caring if he had lied to me or not. I went back to the pile of books he had laid out for me on the table and sat down. The third and last book had the word _Mythology_ across the top. There was a bookmarked section and I flipped open to it. They style of the book itself reminded me of an old school textbook and it had notes written on the margin of one page in itty-bitty letters made of black ink.

The chapter title read _Sentinels: Guardians of Mankind_ in red ink and a normal boring font. I began skimming through the different paragraphs, the first half of which I already knew about. But a gold subtitle caught my eye. _A Dying Race._ It startled me for a moment and I took my time reading the paragraph.

_Even as powerful beings, the Sentinels became scarce due to the many magical wars of this era. The Elders of their order came together and joined their powers and put a spell over their people, creating them to be a true race (as opposed to before when they were just an order of more gifted Humans). With the spell came a mark that was a delicately shaped shield, showing their promise to protect the Humans. But the mark had a more specific purpose. Sentinels that had the same mark were known as _nexus_ or connected. They were destined to meet in their lifetimes and were drawn to each other, thus creating more opportunity of the race multiplying. In some cases, the two partners lived as brother and sister, or mentor and student, and did not have a romantic relationship, but it was uncommon._

Well that was interesting. I immediately thought of all of the boys that I had ever met, especially the hot ones, but I could never recall seeing a mark like the one on my shoulder. Oh well, according to this book I was going to meet my soul mate some time in life. I just hoped that I was no older than thirty when it happened.

With that thought in mind I continued reading through the book, learning things that interested me. I found out that the Sentinel Elders were the only Sentinels that were "untouched by time" they seemed to live on forever and never grow older. But in the past millennia they were all killed and a new order rose up in ways of control called the Inner Council. According to the book they were and still are the leaders of the Magical Realm. This was my best summary of what the section in the book told me.

I must have fallen asleep at one point while I tried to force my eyes to stay open, because the next thing that I was aware of I was opening my eyes to a dull light pouring in through the French doors back in the bedroom. I threw my arm across my face because I didn't want to see the dark storm clouds outside my window and gathered my thoughts. I remembered everything that I had read up on last night, and could still see the words in my head (I have kind of a photographic memory) but what I didn't remember is dragging myself away from the books and getting in the bed last night.

That was creepy. I would bet anything that Baine had moved me again after I'd fallen asleep. Not that I minded, I was happy that he hadn't let me sleep with a book for a pillow, but it still kind of scared me that this was the second time that he had moved me while I was asleep. I was usually a light sleeper and woke at about anything besides the constant rhythm of my low playing music.

I sat up and flipped my legs out from under the silky blue covers and let them dangle over the edge as I let my senses un-fog from sleep and looked around the room. Something caught my eye and I rubbed a hand over my face and cleared my eyes. A white box was sitting on the edge of the bed, out of reach of y legs I guessed because I probably would have kicked it off while I was sleeping.

I leaned all the way over and pulled it toward me, feeling too lazy to stand up and get it. It was light and I wondered what was in it. The lid was… complicated… for me to open. There were two little buttons on the side that you had to hold together, and then you pulled the lid up a little and then slide it off to the right. In my defense I was half awake still and I can never function correctly until I'm fully awake.

Once I had the lid off I peered inside and was wierded out by what I saw. There was a pair of dark blue designer jeans with a really cute pattern on the back pockets and a brown leather belt with double holes, a blouse that was a little darker than sea foam green and was a three quarter sleeves that rolled back to the elbows and buttoned down the front (I imagined that it would look extremely cute over the black tank top) and a pair of socks and boots. Under the clothes was a starkly contrasting dark blue card. I flipped it open to find a silvery interior with Baine's hand writing.

Put these on and meet me in the lobby. We are going out – DB

He'd gone shopping for me? He said that he didn't have any clothes for me last night. But how on earth could he have gotten my size down so well? I had one of those sizes that varied between the brands of the clothing. But everything fit perfect and the jeans even had a boot cut to them (I can't stand not having jeans with a boot cut). The blouse was form fitting and made much of my curves, and I'd been right, it looked great over the black tank top and the boots fit like a dream.

As I fastened the belt around my waist I opened the door and walked out into the hall and promptly fell over flat onto my face. When I sat up and shook my head the sight amazed and relieved me. My stuff! I unzipped the familiar travel bags and found that every single piece of my clothes was there (yes I really did check) and so was all of my bathroom things!

I dragged the bags into my room and unpacked everything, Baine could wait. He had taken everything up here in the first place and if he hadn't expected me to make myself more at home then he needed to get a reality check. I was so freaked out by what had happened recently that any way to make me feel more comfortable was welcome. But as I unpacked I realized that I wasn't wierded out about the magic thing anymore. I didn't have two sides arguing over what was real. All was peaceful inside Aly's World.

As I stepped out of my room for the second time I found that I hadn't seen anything of my cell phone or iPod. They had been in my pockets when I had been walking home from school. If they had fallen out when that dementor had gone after me I would freak out. I had to have some way of getting a hold of my friends and letting them know that I was okay! It hadn't occurred to me that my whole town would think that all three members of my family were missing. But I wasn't missing. I was just… being held agenst my will and seeing magical monsters. Crap. I couldn't tell them that! But what could I tell them? I didn't want to feed them a huge lie, but I couldn't tell them the truth either. Not that I thought that they wouldn't believe me. But it would most likely put them in danger. No one knew where I was at the moment according to Baine. I huffed out a sigh. The lie was my only choice. I'd always been good at making up fake stories when I was younger and out too late.

I decided that I would tell them that I was in Vail and that I was staying with some friends of my aunt and uncle for the moment until the police got things figured out. That would be all I could tell them.

With a sigh I skipped the last step and turned the corner into the lobby to find the fire burning brightly and three men occupying the sofas, one of which was Baine. They all looked up as I skidded to a stop in the doorway, one hand on the wall. The two men I didn't recognize looked from me, to Baine, and back again.

I inclined my head in greeting, now wanting a word with my host. I wanted to know who these guys were and why they looked extremely surprised to see me. "Uh, Baine," I said awkwardly, "Can I have a word with you for a moment?"

He looked at me expectantly and I gave him a dry look.

"Alone."

Was it just me or did he actually seem pleased as he stood and followed me into the other hall? What was that all about? The two mystery men had watched, brows rose, as he walked across the room.

"What do you need?" he asked.

"Who are they?" I pointed to the two guys through the wall.

"The only two people left that I still trust in this world," he said bitterly. "I intended on introducing you."

"They aren't any of the guys that you went to see last night?" If they were _I_ intended on running back upstairs barricading myself in my room if they were. I had no desire to be forced to carry on my bloodline ever in a million years.

"You do not need to worry about them. They are on my side of the playing field."

What he meant about the 'playing field' I didn't understand completely, but I'd take it as a good sign any day. It meant that they didn't have the particular interest in me that I had to worry about. But they did have an interest in me.

"Why were they looking at me like that?"

"As I told you back at the restaurant, Ms. Ellidyr, the knowledge of you and your story is known further than the limits of your little home town."

Which really didn't tell me anything at all, but I followed him back into the other room without blurting out another question.

This time I took note of the two men's appearances when I saw them. The one sitting on the sofa closest to the fire had a strong build and dark skin, and with the wicked sunglasses on he reminded me of Wesley Snipes' movie _Blade_. He wore a dark grey tight tee that showed off his abs and blue jeans with black combat boots. The second man looked so much like Vin Diesel that they could have been brothers and his white shirt, light brown army pants, and boots could have been straight out of the movie _The Pacifier_. I was on the verge of chuckling because I felt like I was in a room with movie stand-ins.

"Gentlemen," Baine addressed them as we walked into the center of the room. "May I introduce you to the daughter of Quin and Cassidy Ellidyr?" He put one of his huge hands lightly on my back as he paused for a moment and I got the impression that he was just going through the motions. I shivered from the touch. "This is Alyssium Ellidyr."

I glanced up at him in surprised. The way my name rolled off his tongue made my blood heat up in my veins. I caught myself and shook my head, wondering why in the world I thought that.

When I turned back to face the two men I found the dark skinned one holding out a hand. I took in and shook once and he spoke in an extremely deep baritone.

"Pleased to meet you Ms. Ellidyr," he said. "My name is Russ Stone."

I nodded once. "Just Aly, thanks. Nice to meet you." The second man shook my hand aswell.

"Levi Jones," he introduced himself. "Pleasure to meet you."

"You too," I said shyly. I don't do well with introductions. But this time my mind was on something else. I'd been expecting to feel all warm-and-fuzzy at these two's touch like I did with Baine because I'd thought that it was the touch of other magic that did that. But I was dead wrong. The why in the heck did I keep feeling a fire inside of me when Baine did? I so did not have the hots for him. I didn't even know him!

Baine motioned for Russ and Levi to sit down and pulled me back down onto the sofa behind us. The cushions, like any other cushions on a leather couch, slowly deflated as we sat down. Well, there was one normal thing that's happened in the past two days, I thought bitterly.

What happened next wasn't even remotely close to normal. Baine put an arm around me along the back of the sofa. I shivered inwardly, but couldn't ignore the fire burning inside of my chest. I'd never felt it before. The man could have touched a lighthouse bulb and make it light up with the energy that seemed to crackle around him. It scared the living daylights out of me, but I also felt… safe… in the hold of it. Oblivious to my thoughts, Baine started speaking.

"Russ and Levi are Sentinels aswell. They are helping to find your aunt and uncle."

I had been thinking about what Baine had said last night about the Sentinels that had become power hungry and forgot about the humans and had been wondering whether these two fit into that category, but as soon as Baine spoke those words I suddenly didn't care if they were the losers that weren't doing their jobs. They were helping to find Mark and Terisa!

"Have you found anything yet?" I said, leaning forward and jumping to the edge of the couch.

They looked at each other before answering. "You are young and living with humans your whole life we can't expect you to know much about the Magi Realm," Levi said. "So we can't explain it to you. But so far, no, we haven't found anything."

I exhaled the breath that I'd been holding and –bypassing the young statement—leaned back agenst the couch, barely avoiding Baine's arm which had fallen behind me when I moved forward. I looked at the coffee table between the two couches and thought. What did I expect? It had only been two days. Even with powers they couldn't do a thing without evidence, and if there was no evidence…

Something caught in my throat. I wasn't going to think about this. I couldn't. It would be bad luck. I firmly believed in the power of thought because it was far greater than most people think. "So what's the real reason you're here?" I asked. The smug air around Baine when we'd walked out into the hall earlier had me curious. He hadn't had them over to show me off did he? He certainly seemed to make them think that I was _with_ him. The arm around me? Yeah, obvious giveaway.

"We stopped by to give Dimitri information concerning your aunt and uncle, but he didn't mention a thing about you," Russ answered.

Hearing Baine's first name was odd after I'd taken to calling him by his last name. And again with the look of interest! Okay, I knew I had a good figure but that's not what they were noting, because they were studying me much in the same way a teenager does a brand new car. And if Baine really was showing me off (and I couldn't imagine why I would be something to show off to anyone) then I was going to kill him.

I took my eyes off Russ and Levi and looked at Baine. "That's it?" I asked him.

"I want expecting you to wake up so soon. A dementor draining takes the body time to gain energy again."

Then what was with the look? "Okay." I would let that slide for the time being. "What was all this for?" I asked, indicating the new clothes.

"I'm not allowed to buy you new clothes?" he asked in the closest thing to innocent that his dark, seductive voice would manage. I opened my mouth to say something and found that I had absolutely no answer to that. He stood up and walked with Levi and Russ out of the room, talking the whole way.

I stayed put on the couch and mulled over the questions I had for Baine, most of them concerning what just happened. I also anticipated what the answers were going to be and if they were what I thought they were going to be, they would be followed by a cuss out from me. That is, if he told me anything in the first place.

I heard a distant door open, a pause, and then it closed. I looked up and Baine was in the doorway. "Come," was all he said.

I didn't even have time to open my mouth again before he turned and disappeared. I threw an agitated look at the place he'd been standing. I was not thoroughly ticked. Locking me in a room is not good for someone else's health. It had given me a lot of time to think of all the reasons to be pissed at Baine. He dragged me off to Vail, left me in a pair of shorts and a tank top for two fudging days, wouldn't answer the questions I wanted answered, and had been the one to tell me that Mark and Risa had been frigging kidnapped. You know the saying 'kill the messenger?' Yeah, I so wanted to do that right now. I don't know how much more I can handle before I go berserk.

I stood up, my aggravation still obvious on my face, and followed. I saw him disappearing around a corner down the hall to the left. When I turned the corner I found myself in a big open room with white and black tiles patterned on the floor and a set of big, double doors that looked like the ones that lead to the library. On either side of the doors there were two big windows that had a stained glass pattern on the edges. Outside I could see a front deck and a stone pathway that was lined with trees. It was beautiful. And I'm an outdoors kind of person and it was my first chance to get out of this mansion in two days and away from the irritating, gorgeous man that was currently my host.

"You aren't getting away that easily," Baine's tone was much the same that he'd used when he'd spoken to me last, minus the innocence.

I gave him a reproachful look. "I wouldn't be so intent of leaving if you weren't so intent on keeping me here," I told him. I'm the kind of girl that does things the exact opposite of what they want me to do just to make them mad if I they tick me off.

He raised a brow. "I was planning on taking you to breakfast and giving you back your cell phone and iPod."

What? Did I just hear that right? Baine was taking me to breakfast? Wait! Who cares? MY CELL PHONE! "How come you didn't leave it in my room?" I asked and ran over to him.

"Because when you fell in the water it short circuited and I had to get you a new one," he answered, handing me the same phone that I had, minus the scratches. "All of your old information and pictures are downloaded on it already."

I snickered as I flipped it open and scanned through everything just to make sure. I couldn't imagine Baine shopping in a store any more than I could a lion. I had fourteen new messages and three missed calls. "What about my iPod?" I asked, looking up at him when I checked all of my messages.

"It is safe and sound up in your room," he answered and lead me out the door.

"What? Not it's not. I didn't see it up there," I said and stopped walking.

"It is sitting on the dresser next to the bed," he wrapped his hand around my wrist and pulled me along. I was too busy missing my music to notice the electricity that was running between us. That's how much I love my music. I hate going without it. It helps me calm down, and right now I need calming.

"No, it's not," I protested. I remembered putting my pajamas in the top drawer. If I had seen my iPod I would have probably screamed with relief.

"Yes, it is."

I frowned and glared at him. This was stupid, we sounded like five year olds fighting over a toy. I let it go. If it wasn't there when I got back I'd have another reason to kill him. He took no notice of my look and we continued along the path.

That path leads to a beautiful wrought iron gate with two obsidian pillars on either side and fence that continued along beyond my line of sight toward the forest. Beyond the gate, Baine's Viper sat lazily, ready for the moment that it could go speeding along the road.

"Why are you being so nice to me all of the sudden?" I asked after Baine took out a set of keys and pressed a button on a little pad and the gate slid open.

"For what reasons would I have to be nice to you?"

I gave him a look. Seriously, who talked like that these days? "I don't know. I would like to say that it is because you are a good person and don't want me to feel like I'm being held captive here, but I'm sure that's not the case." I gave him a dry look.

He gave me a smile the made him look like the Devil himself and got in the car.

**Chapter 3**

I have no idea how to pronounce the name of the restaurant that he dragged me to. I think it was Italian… or maybe Greek, and the only reason that I didn't complain was because part of the menu was in English. If not I would have gone with a cheeseburger and fries just to irritate him. This restaurant was pricy, and obviously for the higher class and I saw things that made me do double takes. I was seeing double, but it wasn't double. I was seeing things that only my mind's eye could have imagined up while reading a book.

I saw vampires drinking blood, I saw tiny leprechauns munching on walnuts. When I stared for too long at one of the farer of the Fae, Baine jerked my face toward him.

"Don't stare at anything for too long. The Humans will think you are odd and the Magi will see what you are," he said.

I tried to pull out of his grip without success. "Why is it a bad thing if they know what I am?"

"When you are out in the open don't speak of anything of importance," he went on without acknowledging my question. "The higher Magi beings aren't like they used to be either. Some lead on simple lives like the Humans do, some dabble in the darker side of things, searching for forbidden power."

I could see that, vampires living nice little family lives. I could also see the darker brethren of the Fae searching for the forbidden black magic. In other words they were the same, the Humans and the Magi beings. They all had their issues and power hungry people. They both had their heroes and bad guys. "You didn't answer my question."

"People that choose places like this, Ms. Ellidyr, are one of two things, if not both. Extremely wealthy, or extremely connected and powerful. Out of groups like this, seventy-five percent are both. They have climbed to the top and still want more. Recently, the Magi have been trying to get Sentinels to show them the way into the Human's Realm. The immortals grow tired of the same dining century after century. They remember the days when the Humans were at the bottom of the food chain and hunger for their sweet taste," his hand dropped from my chin and while it felt tingly where he touched me. The rest of my body ran cold.

The Humans had been the Magi beings' food? How horrible! Look at them! They are just like any other living creatures with families and lives. That had to have been why they went to the Sentinels for protection. Had they been a dying race? Very few lest as opposed to the thousands upon thousands that filled the earth to a point of overflowing these days?

How could Baine have spoken in such a cold voice? His eyes had been merciless and the expression he wore was ten shades of ice.

The waiter came then and took our orders, making me push the startling realization to the back of my mind. There was no reason to cry over things past. The Human race had survived and flourished again. All I had to concentrate on was that things stayed that way.

"You speak Italian?" I asked after I watched him have a conversation and a half with the waitress.

"I can speak many languages fluently."

That was interesting. I could speak in some Spanish and a little French, but not very fluently at the moment. I planned to take my final year of French this year, but apparently God had different plans for me.

"What were you talking about?" I asked. The waitress had come over fluidly with a warms smile for him and a flat glance at me. She had also only talked to him when I assume she asked for our orders. He'd ended up ordering for me.

"After she took our orders she asked if we were together," he said lightly.

What? A relationship with Baine? No way! He is like, thirty, and I'm eighteen! "What did you say?" I asked, trying to keep my voice cool and smooth, but I think the blood that flushed across my cheeks screwed that up.

I read a book once that talked about the mind and body. The body can resist the mind if forced to do so, but it can never be the other way around. The body always reacts to the mind. I understood what that meant now.

"I told her that you were my niece," he said. "Then she asked if I would like to meet with her some time."

My blush faded away. Psh, she wasn't anywhere in his league. Plus, he was part of a whole world that she didn't even believe in. "What did you tell her then?" The cool tone that I'd tried to manage moments ago came easier.

"I told her that I am unavailable because I am currently seeing someone," he replied, watching me closely.

My mouth went dry and I mentally smacked myself. Of course he had a girlfriend. He was as gorgeous as an archangel and smart too. There were probably tons of girls that were dying to date him. I wondered what kind of man he was. Did he go with steady relationships or has he slept with every single woman in town?

Why did I care? I'd known him for a very short two days, and someone has to know another person for a time before beginning to like them. And that didn't include locking someone in a room, then buying her new clothes and taking her to breakfast.

"Really?" I asked mildly. "Is she human?"

He shook his head. "She doesn't care about speed limits and has over 600 horses under her hood."

I grinned in sudden understanding. He was talking about his car. I about mentally smacked myself again (it was becoming a thing that I did often). Of course he didn't have a human girlfriend. With all of the magic and other worldly things that he did a normal human woman would have thought he was crazy. Heck I'd thought he'd been crazy for a short time and I saw the Magi dimension myself. "I see," I muttered and continued eating my breakfast.

"Thank you for breakfast," I told him when I'd finished the last of my hot chocolate. It warmed me up better than the weather outside did.

He nodded, but his gaze was through the window behind me.

I sighed. I hoped to get him talking again. I wanted to know why he was keeping me here in Vail. I assumed that he wanted to keep me safe until my aunt and uncle were found. That would be a big reason. But he'd been thoroughly irritated when he found out that I didn't know about what I am when he found me. Maybe he wanted to teach me some things before sending me back home. I sure didn't think it would hurt.

I'd gone to staring blankly at my plate but looked up when Baine shifted. "How about we go?" he asked, standing up, keeping his eyes on the window.

I turned and looked out the window and frowned when I saw nothing but a drizzly October day. I looked back at Baine, wondering what the heck he was looking at, and found him already at the counter paying the bill. With one more glance at the window I hurried after him.

What were you looking at?" I asked him as we stepped through the glass doors to the restaurant out into the chilly rain.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, one brow raised.

"You were staring at something through the window," I wanted to add an obvious _duh_ but decided that my tone covered that enough.

His look was still questioningly blank, though, as if he were trying to convince me that I hadn't seen what I saw, and the only thing he accomplished by that was making me wonder why he was trying to avoid it.

"Oh, don't even try," I said flatly. "You had to have thought it was interesting or you wouldn't have been staring out the window at the exact same spot while you got up and put your jacket on." Of course I didn't have any proof that he'd been looking at the exact same spot, but it was worth a shot. And where did I get the feeling that it was important from?

He almost smiled and his expression changed to… approval? "You noticed details," he noted.

"Well yeah I'm not blind," I said. "It was kind of obvious." Okay, maybe not _obvious_, but can you blame me? I'm eighteen after all.

I could tell that he'd called by half bluff. I had to give credit where credit was due; Baine was amazing at masking his face. I didn't know how I knew it, but I could kind of just tell. It was in the electricity of the aura around him. I wondered if this was my Sentinel power, being able to read people. "So," I prompted," what was so interesting?"

His face was blank and unreadable again and I got the feeling that he'd been showing emotion on purpose in the first place. "Ugh, I liked it better when I could read yo—"

I was cut off when I heard a small shift of a noise by Baine who pulled me round behind him.

"What are you—" I started, but was again cut off by a low growl in the ally next to us, darkened by the dark storm clouds overhead.

"Go get in the car, Aly," Baine said instantly.

"What—"

"Go. Now."

I heard all kinds of nonnegotiable in his voice and decided that getting cut off three times in a row wasn't as big of a deal as sticking around to find out what just made that noise. I realized suddenly that it was light enough that I should have been able to see something in the ally, but there was nothing.

I began backing toward the street and to the side. The car wasn't a block away. I turned and sped along the sidewalk, thanking God that these boots were light to run in all the way up 'till I saw a flash of blue light and suddenly got a face full of sidewalk. I was faintly aware of the scrapes that I had on my hands from sliding across the pavement while I tried to catch myself, but I had bigger problems. Like being squished agenst the sidewalk by a paw that was the size of my fist that belonged to really big wolf.

I couldn't inflate my lungs enough to fuel a breath and was seriously wondering if all Magi creatures killed by suffocation. Instead of panicking like I did with the dementor I just reacted. I rolled over onto my back so quickly and forcefully that the wolf didn't have time to react and its paw landed on the sidewalk next to me. I sat up and started backing up as fast as I could.

"Baine where the heck are you?" I yelled as the wolf started toward me again.

He didn't need words to answer. His sword plunging through the wolf's brown, fur covered chest said enough. I found that screaming was a pointless thing in this world. I had no need for it. Gasping from surprise at what I was seeing was more than enough.

The sword was drawn back with a squelching sound that made me want to gag. The wolf just collapsed and I saw Baine standing behind it, blood on his hands and a relentless look in his eyes. He was pissed off to no end.

My eyes went back to the wolf's form in front of me and had a feeling of déjà vu. Its body showed the decomposition process that would take thousands of years in about ten seconds. I opened my mouth to say something to Baine but all that came out was my breakfast and burning stomach acid.

I turned to the street and threw up everything in my stomach and then some into the gutter. I can tell you, from my point of view it wasn't a pretty sight. But Baine stayed tight where he was seeming calm, cool, and collected as ever.

"We need to move, Ms. Ellidyr," he said and walked around the pile of dust that used to be a giant wolf towards me.

I stopped heaving just in time to keep from throwing up my internal organs and fixed him with an icy glare. Or maybe it was just more of a clammy glare because I could guarantee that my skin was just that: clammy. It had no effect on Baine whatsoever.

So I ignored his request and pulled my knees up to my chest and crossed my arms over them and rested my forehead over my arms. I was feeling on edge and shaky. How in the world had that wolf just appeared on top of me? And how did Baine just watch it perform an excellent example of a sped up rotting process without the slightest hint of remorse? And then he expected me to get up and walk off?

Apparently Baine just had to get his way because as I was brooding over my thoughts he picked me up in his arms. I sucked in a breath to keep the movement from making me throw up all over his nice Italian suit. He'd probably kill me then. But for some reason I relaxed further.

"It will pass soon, Ms. Ellidyr," Baine said calmly. Again he sounded as if it was no problem at all carrying me. But I could still feel the restraint of his muscles, even under my weight. It amazed and frightened me that the man that had just run a wolf through with his sword without an effort was now carrying me in his arms and telling me that I wasn't going to throw up again. I looked up at him meaning to give him one of my I-don't-think-so faces but what I saw in his eyes put that thought out of my mind. Anger. Pure, dark, anger. Yeah, I was right. He was pissed.

It was later on that night when I got the chance to talk to him. He went out after he took me back to the house and made me promise that I would stay in my room. I didn't want to, but he has a way of getting things by making me confused and then finally just give up. But to be honest, I didn't ask him why he left. I wasn't sure I wanted to know. Yeah, it could have been related to his job –assuming that he has one—or another meeting about my aunt and uncle. But I had a feeling that the reason he was gone until after dark had something to do with that spark of anger that I saw in his eyes.

It was during that time that I decided that I was going to start keeping a diary. I was alone and had so many questions and if I didn't get them out of my head somehow I was afraid that I might start losing my mind.

Dear Diary,

My life is being unveiled to me as we speak. I am finding out that my parents weren't the people that I thought they were and that I'm not _what_ I thought I was either. I thought I was just some normal girl that had good friends and a great family, but that wasn't even half of it. I am a Sentinel, a guardian of the Humans from the Magi. It started when I met the most irritating person that I will probably ever know in my whole life, Dimitri Baine. I was attacked by a dementor –I know, scary, right?—and then saved by the mystery man. He took me to his house –or rather mansion, the place is huge!—in Vail and told me that my aunt and uncle have gone missing. He taught me all of this stuff about what I am, and showed me what the real world is. And trust me, it's not pretty.

~Aly

I looked up from the entry that I'd written in an empty notebook that I found in the library. I had a stash of pens in a drawer in case I had gotten bored and wanted to doodle on something. I wanted this one to be just a summary of what happened before I actually started my diary. When my pen hit the page again I wrote:

Dear Diary,

I learned about my history last night after Baine locked me in the room that he gave me. The library is right next to it. I got my phone back and texted all of my friends to tell them that I am okay and staying with family friends in Vail. Baine also took me to breakfast. I'm wondering why he was being so nice today. But after getting slammed into the rain slicked sidewalk by a huge wolf, I decided that I didn't care. Baine saved my life again. Why does he care? What am I to him? Not that I didn't want to be saved, but now I am curious. Why does he want me alive? I have a feeling that this man wouldn't have saved me if he didn't need to for a reason.

~Aly

I stared at the page, having nothing to add to my entry of the day. I was anxious for Baine to come back. I wanted to know why the heck I seemed to be a target for someone. I wanted to know how I could find out what my powers were so I could use them to defend myself if an attempt on my life happened again. I wasn't stupid enough to think that this was over with.

I heard a door close and frowned. Somehow, I knew it was the front door. It disturbed me for the moment that I forgot that I wasn't just a plain Human being and not part of a world full of magic and super-senses. But just to be sure that I wasn't hearing things I got up and went outside on my balcony. It was still raining and through a sheet of rain I could see the sleek for of a Viper parked outside the front gate.

I had to admit, part of me still thought I was imagining it and I was actually delighted that I wasn't. That meant that the Sentinel's heightened senses had come along and I was curious how long it took for one to figure out what their extra ability was. I was also itching to see what telepathy abilities that I had. I realized that maybe this wasn't such a bad situation for a person like me to be in after all. If my aunt and uncle hadn't been abducted I would probably be enjoying this, I realized.

I ran back in and pulled on my favorite pair of sweats –Mark always threw them away because they are really old and have a coffee stain on the left leg, but I got in and dug them back out again because they are too comfortable to get rid of— over a pair of short pajama shorts that I was wearing. Then I ran into the bathroom that was adjoining my room and towel dried my waist length mass of curls. It was raining so hard out there that even standing out there for a short time had made my hair wet.

Then I hurried down the stairs, seriously hoping that he would be in the lobby when I got there. I didn't want to wander around the house looking for him because that would mean that I wouldn't have time to check out all of the rooms.

But there was nothing to worry about. It turns out that Baine was coming up the stairs and whaddya know we ran into each other. Literally. One minute I was turning the corner to get to the second floor's flight of stairs and the next I was bouncing off of Dimitri Baine's painfully hard chest and falling on my ace onto the floor.

"Oh my God," I gasped. "What did I tell you about sneaking up on me?"

He just stared down at me for a moment, offer a hand out to help me up, or ask me if I was okay, no what he said was quite different.

"Oh I'm sorry," he said dryly. "But it's a little hard to know that you are even there when you run completely silent."

Woo-hoo, jackass Baine was back. Not. I guess that I only got half of a day to see his good side. That was assuming that he did have a good side and not just short, happy-feeling, mood swings. "Someone's happy pills wore off," I muttered under my breath as I stood up and crossed my arms. He heard that, I could see a slight flash of irritation cross his face as I glared up at him. I went on pretending as if I hadn't said a word. "Then you need to get your ears checked because I've never been able to walk silently in my life. My ankles pop when I bend then," I said and demonstrated.

Well, tried to demonstrate, anyway. I bent my ankle and straightened it again, just like I usually would to get the joint to pop. Only there was a problem. It didn't pop. Didn't make a sound. Nothing, zilch, nada.

I looked up to explain that my ankles _usually_ did pop. But when I his face I shut my mouth. He had something to say about this, I could tell by the forced patients in his features and a slight sparkle in his eye that was obvious knowledge.

"What?" I asked shortly. Irritation; it tends to do that to me.

"Your powers are starting to awaken," he answered.

So I was right. It was my powers that were coming. But I didn't think that it would do things like make me run silently and stuff. "What… exactly… do Sentinel powers do?" I asked, curious now.

He nodded toward the stairs and began to walk down them. I was about to protest, but he spoke before I could. Surprisingly it was an answer.

"All Sentinels get heightened senses and stealth when they come of age," he explained. "It is because for the first eighteen years they are supposed to feel Human so that they have better understanding of what they are protecting when they come of age. Sentinels are originally very good at being unheard when they don't want to be."

"But if you have heightened senses then why couldn't you hear me?"

"Your stealth exceeds Sentinel senses," he said and I saw a ghost of the look that Levi Jones and Russ Stone had given me in Baine's eyes. I decided to blow it off with another question, when other people look at me like that, I don't care, but when Baine looks at me like that…

"What, no super speed and strength?" I asked with a tiny hint of sarcasm. He had kind of left that part out, how else could I explain his extreme muscles? But to my surprise he shook his head.

"Not unless it is one of the individual powers," he said as we rounded the corner into the lobby.

"Really?" I asked, thrown off by my wrong assumption. "Then is that your power?" I was sure that all of that energetic power that crackled around him was something to do with that aswell. I also had no doubt that he had more than one power…

"Yes, I have more than one power," he said as if he was answering my question rather than telling me information. Like he knew that I had thought the question.

"Mindreading?" I asked. He was either that or had a major telepathic ability.

"No," he indicted for me to sit on the sofa with a coffee table in front of it. There was a medical kit on the table. I shot him a quizzical look as I sat down. Then he had a very good telepathic ability.

"How did that wolf just appear on top of me out of nowhere?" This had been bugging me all day. If that was a normal thing then I was going to freak out.

"It came out of thin air?" he asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, there was a flash of light and then it was on top of me." The image of this morning replayed through my head like a mini-movie and I barely repressed a shudder.

"What color was this flash?"

I frowned. Why in the fudge would he want to know that? I had been a little busy trying to get into the car and avoid the other wolf. "I think it was blue, why?" I asked.

"Are you sure that it was blue?" Everything seemed to have gone very still and an odd silence hung on my answer.

"I'm pretty sure, a white-ish blue light," I said. "Why is that so important Baine?"

"Because if it had been white-blue that means that you, Ms. Ellidyr, are an Orber." There was a genuine grin on his lips and I was stunned to see that he didn't seem so cold with that expression. He actually looked kind of hot… Wait a second, there I go again.

"What's an Orber?"

"The ability to Orb is a method of transportation. They can move themselves by thinking themselves there," he said.


	2. Chapter 2

I looked down at my hands in my lap. That was interesting. It would be the same thing as sifting. I looked back up when he took my arm and slit the tape with a knife that he had in the pocket of his stone washed jeans. I raised a brow. That was interesting. He wasn't wearing a fancy Italian suit, or anything highly expensive either. I hadn't even looked at his clothes before, but now that I noticed, I personally noted that he looked better in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. It made him seem tougher, stronger. If that was possible.

"Why aren't you dressed in your usual 'I got money' attire Baine?" I asked just to be annoying.

He ignored me and looked my wrist over and then opened the little tube of ointment. It smelled like peppermint and cocoa and trailed a line of purple goo along the wound. Then he unrolled some athletic tape and a gauze wrap.

As he moved I saw a small row of four scratches along his ribs. It was light, not even bleeding and the only reason that I saw it was because his black shirt was torn.

"What's that?" I asked.

He followed my gaze and then returned to tending to my wrist. "A scratch," he said flatly.

"Okay Captain Obvious, where did it come from?" The way the scratched were placed it looked like claw marks.

"Something sharp."

I resisted the impulse to smack him. No duh, I wasn't a two year old. I knew how cuts were made. "You didn't go look for the other wolf," I said. The message that I sent was clear. That he _better not have_ gone looking for that wolf. That thing could have eaten me for breakfast! It was that big. But then I remembered that sword Baine had and how when he had stabbed the wolf that had gone after me and it had disintegrated and almost felt sorry for the other. I guessed that it must have escaped because Baine had been busy saving my life.

"Tell me that you didn't," I said, my voice softening when he didn't answer and instead wrapped the gauze around my arm.

Ignoring the sting of the wound I stared at the top of his head, willing him to feel the burn of my gaze, until he finished taping up my arm. "I would," he said finally, "But then I'd be lying."

I stared at him as he cut open the tape on my other arm and started taping it up. He did it more slowly and more carefully than I did when I did it myself. I'll let him patch me up from now on. He was much smoother and more precise and the feeling of his hands on my skin…

Shit! I shook my head. Not again. My mind had been drifting off in that general direction way too often for my liking.

"Are you okay?" I asked, instead of letting myself think about it anymore.

He gave me a look that reminded me of one that Mark gave me all of the time when he would come home from work with an injury. Usually following that look he would say something along the lines of _'Of course, I'm too good at my job to get hurt.'_

I all but ignored that look and glanced at him again to see if there were any more scratches. I'd said before that Baine struck me as the jerky kind but when I saw that there was only another light scratch along his neck I also saw that he was the kind of guy that could take care of himself.

When he was done I pulled my arm away and rolled my wrist. It still stung but it would heal. I shrugged it off. I had something I wanted to ask Baine and I wasn't going to whine about a cut. "So how could you remorselessly kill a wolf when it was about to kill me, but then go and get beat up by it?" I asked him. I was just teasing, but I was curious too.

"Fluffy had friends," he said with a sardonic grin.

I fought back a giggle. Fluffy. That was cute. He'd actually almost made me laugh. I guess he had a sense of humor after all.

While I was mulling this over Baine took my arm and pulled it back into place, unraveling another strip of tape that was unneeded and put it around the bandage. I got over the interest of his hidden humor and wondered why he had gone after the escapee wolf in the first place.

"I found out who sent the wolf," he said absently.

Oh how ironic, he gives me answers when I don't ask them, but barely says a word when I do ask. So he'd tracked it down to see who sent it, and ran into a pack. That would explain why he got some scratches. I had a feeling that there was more than a few aswell. I mean, Baine had resisted a dementor when it had more power than I had ever thought. I wondered just how many wolves there were.

"How?" I asked.

"The wolf gave me a name," he said, and pressed a little too hard agenst my wrist when he noticed that I was looking at the scratches again.

I looked at him with a frown. Jerk. Why did he care if I looked at his cut? He'd actually patched mine up. But when I saw the dark gleam in his eyes I decided that it wasn't worth pushing. Instead I raised a brow and commented on his answer. "_Gave_ you the name?" I asked. Yeah, that was debatable.

He let go of my hand and his face went blank again. "It took a little persuasion, but yes."

I resisted rolling my eyes. I doubted that _persuasion_ was the right word. _Torture _or _force_ seemed to fit his personality better. I had no idea why I thought of him like that, I wasn't one to judge a book my it's cover, but it just made sense. I mean, the scratches were obviously a sign of a fight.

"How many friends did fluffy have, exactly?" I asked. He flashed a mischievous grin and put the tape and ointment back into the medical kit.

I gave him a dry look. I was sick of not knowing whether he was going to answer me or not. But I had an idea that might get me this answer. "Aww come on, Baine. Unless that you're afraid to admit that a couple of lousy wolves scratched you up."

You have to admit, it was a good strategy. I could tell that it had an effect, but only a little bit. Irritation glinted in his eyes, but a smile played around the corners of his mouth.

"Well played, Ms. Ellidyr," he said. "You actually almost got me, of all people, to answer you."

I scowled. That one usually worked on people that have a big ego. But unluckily for me, Baine has a huge ego, and he is smart.

"I think I'm right though," I said, now just trying to piss him off. "I mean, it was either that or there were so many that you couldn't watch them all." This time I didn't even realizing that I had reached out until I realized that he let me brush my fingers across his chest.

The irritation was back and this time it wasn't just a quick flash. I had found a sensitive subject. Apparently he _did_ have a big ego. There is a thing that the Y chromosome installs in a guy and it's called Male Pride and they hate it when you question it.

I stared into his eyes persuasively, willing him to answer me this time. But then somehow, something changed. His eyes were persuasive and mine just went blank. Good Lord… he was gorgeous. His eyes smoldered seductively and then I think I blinked. Because one moment I was sitting on the couch staring into his eyes, one hand on his rock hard chest and feeling like I was melting, and the next I was kneeling on the floor, both of my arms twisted behind my back and locked by one of his big hands. It happened in less than three seconds.

I gasped from the pain, all of his earlier gentleness for my wounds gone as he held my wrists tightly. My reflexes (I now guessed it was actually my Sentinel instincts, not normal reflexes) kicked in and I tried to roll and get out of his grasp, but as I started to, his other arm wrapped around my waist and kept me from moving. "Let me go," I said, trying to twist again.

What the heck did he think he was doing?

"Remember this, Ms. Ellidyr, and try not to question me again," his lips were at my ear and I could actually feel the anger coming off of him in waves.

"This is uncalled for, Baine," I snapped. "Let me go." And he did. But what he did after that was so unexpected and so random that it startled me into freezing.

His fingers brushed across my cheek. "I will keep you safe. Trust me."

I ignored the tingling feeling. "How can I trust you? I don't know the first thing about you."

"I've saved your life twice now. Do you really think that I would have gone to that trouble if I didn't care if you were dead?" His words had an icy chill to them and I backed up, breaking the contact between us.

A long silence followed. It wasn't exactly an uneasy, creepy silence, and the stillness that had come over us was somewhat compatible. I should be absolutely mad at him for taking me down like that, but it had given me respect for the man. He was strong and fast, that much was obvious. He also did put up with other people's BS. That was one thing we had in common.

"I think you should get some sleep," Baine said after a while.

I was glad that he had spoken because I hadn't wanted to break the silence. I started toward the stairs wordlessly, but stopped and turned at the corner.

He hadn't moved from his position.

"Baine…" I said awkwardly. "Thank you for saving my life." I had realized that I had never actually thanked him either time and I guess that now was the time to do it while I didn't have any immediate questions and he wasn't being a jerk.

"Goodnight Ms. Ellidyr." I heard Baine's voice… but it wasn't out loud. Or was it? I couldn't tell. It hadn't come from the room. It had seemed to be everywhere and nowhere at once. Was that telepathy? I had half a mind to turn around and ask, but I changed my mind. It would be just too weird. I could actually swear that there had been something between us back there. More than just attraction due to looks. And somewhere in my head a new part of my mind made itself known. It said, _you know he is actually not that bad._ I wanted to cut off that part. No, that is not going to happen. He and I are two people that are totally wrong for each other.

But no matter how hard I tried, that thought echoed in the back of my mind all of the way up to my room.

* * *

I woke up the next morning in a pretty good mood, despite my confusing and crazy dream-thoughts about my host. I found a note taped to a door next to my bed.

Clean up. There is soap in the shower. Then come downstairs. Wear something that you won't mind getting dirt all over it. –DB

I frowned. Why would I possibly get covered in dirt for? And what of mine wouldn't I care to get dirty? I like all of my clothes.

I opened the door that the note was taped to and looked around. I had thought that it had been another closet, but instead it was a bathroom that was half the size of my large bedroom. The bathtub had Jacuzzi jets and there was a large shower next to it made with brown rock tiles that felt like worn sandpaper.

The counter and two sinks were made of the same rock, only this time it was polished, and a giant mirror covered the whole upper half of the wall.


	3. Chapter 3

I took my time in the shower, relaxing in the steaming water as my hair soaked in my favorite Pink Coral Flower and White Nectarine conditioner that gave me a mental picture of an undiscovered citrus fruit with a warm spice to it. I love that smell by the way, it just smelled like me. My clothes, by pillows, everything had that warm citrusy tint to it.

After I towel dried and ran a comb through my waist length curls I walked over to the closet that I had hung up all of my clothes in after tripping over them. I felt like dressing dark today, since outside was still dark with black thunder clouds. I dressed to reflect the weather outside or my current mood and sadly, I had a lot of black in my closet. My poor little home town was usually in a seemingly never-ending torrent of rain and snow.

When I stepped into the bathroom to put on a little bit of mascara (I usually never wear makeup, Risa had told me that I didn't need to with my creamy skin and long lashes) I was wearing a black tank top with a silver raven in the middle, a pair of dark blue boot-cut jeans, my black and silver studded belt, and the boots that Baine had given me.

I grinned. All I would have to do to look like I was in a screamo band was put on some heavy black eyeliner and dye my hair black. But that wasn't going to happen. I love my hair. It's long and curly and I hate even trimming more than a coupe inches off of it to kill off the dead ends.

Curious why Baine had wanted to meet me in the lobby urgently enough to leave a note I walked downstairs. I expected to see him on one of the couches again with one of his buddies like last time when he'd told me to come down, but when I got there the room was empty.

Well that sucks. Where downstairs was I supposed to meet him? I don't want to go wandering around without knowing where to go. But just as I thought that I heard the unmistakable black silk that was Baine's voice cutting off a raised voice that I'd never heard before.

Now who would argue with Baine? I frowned and started in the general direction that I had heard the voices. I went down the short hall and out into the entrance hall silently, listening for any other sounds that would lead me to them. I heard something that was off to the left from the front door, down another short hallway that led to what I took to the living room.

There was a huge flatscreen TV on the wall and a comfy looking wrap around couch in front of it, with a coffee table set with polished green marble between them. There was a door on the right side of the room that was open just a crack. The voices were coming from the room beyond that.

"I just wanted to know why I could smell something new around here," the unknown voice was saying in a defensive tone.

I could picture Baine narrowing his eyes. "What you smell is an eighteen year old girl that is almost more stubborn than you are."

The other man laughed and I crept closer to the door and peered though the crack. Baine was standing with his back to me but I could see the unknown one quite clearly. He was shorter than Baine by two or three inches, but still taller than me. He had brown hair and green eyes and a dark tan and I would have pegged him for a hottie surfer boy any day.

"I'd never thought I would see the day that you were into teenagers," he said with another chuckle. "Who is she? I want to meet her."

"Her name is Aly Ellidyr. Does that ring a bell?"

The moment my name rolled out of Baine's mouth the other man's mouth dropped open slightly. "So what they were saying about Terisa and her husband wasn't just a rumor then?" He paused while Baine shook his head and then continued. "Why are you involved? I understand saving the girl, but why keep her? Why not send her to the council for protection?"

"I can protect her better than the council any day and you know it," Baine scoffed. His arrogance knows no bounds, I swear.

"You have another reason for it, Dimitri. Don't think I can't see that."

Baine had another reason to keep me here? How could this new, cute, mystery guy know that when I didn't?

I heard Baine let out a breath. "You don't understand Josh." Baine's arm moved to his shoulder for a moment and then dropped, and surfer boy's mouth parted again.

"But I thought that you wouldn't—" Josh stopped altogether, running out of words.

"Neither did I," Baine spoke quietly. "But what happens, happens. I have no control over it anymore. Not that I'm happy about it. I trust you with this, Josh, and no one else. But it isn't the only reason. I made a promise to Quin and Cassidy. I promised that I would keep her safe. I was the only one they knew they could trust."

Like the last time, my parents' names were a shock to me. But this time there was a whole new meaning behind the creepiness. The fact that Baine had promised to take care of me meant that he was older than I thought. That information would have been outright scary if I hadn't recently been introduced to a whole other world occupied by Faerys and leprechauns. But… I had thought he was hot —heck I still did— and he could be sixty.

In front of me Josh's face turned soft and he put a hand on Baine's shoulder. "Your secret is safe with me, I promise. But how can you be sure that the girl's family's personal assassinator won't peg you as a target?"

Baine laughed coldly, sending shivers down my spine. "For them to make me a target would be a death wish." There was that giant ego again. I rolled my eyes. "They know how resourceful I am. I would track down their first attempt and go on from there. It would be too much of a risk for them."

I saw the strategy in this. But how could he be so sure that they wouldn't? Someone had already gone after me with him there, so wouldn't it be practically the same situation? Baine had tracked down the wolf that had escaped already and had a name. Maybe they had just—

"They underestimated me," Baine finished my thought, "and it's going to cost them, I will make sure of it. They will cover up their tracks like they have been for the past hundred years. So we are going to treat this like a chess game."

As Baine said this he turned around and I darted out of the room. But I had a feeling that they had heard me, being Sentinels and all, and I really didn't want Baine to know that I'd just heard that conversation. If I showed up near enough they would just ting it was a mistake in their hearing or something and I could pull it off. So just as they came through the door I stepped into the living room.

"There you are," I said, acting exasperated. "I've been looking for you since I got out of the shower. I'm hungry, I couldn't find the kitchen." I figured that this was a good bluff, unless he did his telepathy thing.

But I could see a glint of suspicion in his eyes. I realized that I was getting better at reading him. But now wasn't the time for that. I kept my face transfixed in a cocky stare that only a teenager can pull off and concentrated on waffles. Now if he did read my mind my thoughts would fit with my bluff.

The guy called Josh looked at me for a moment, one brow raised and a light grin on his face, and then turned to Baine. "Well it looks like you've even started training her," he said in a light, mocking tone. "She's getting the hang of manipulating telepathy already."

Ah ha, so I was correct. My waffle thing had changed the mindreading. But they could still tell that I was lying. Baine's face was back to blank again and he looked from Josh to me. Dang it, I hated it severely when I couldn't read him!

Josh laughed. "It takes years to be able to read him, kid. Trust me."

"Who are you?" I asked. How did he know Baine? And how in the world was he on friendly terms with him? I couldn't stand the man myself, although I wouldn't be pegged as a very tolerant person my any of my closest friends either…

"Josh Evans," he said and held out a hand. "I've known Baine for forever."

I walked closer and shook his hand. He was big too. Shish, are all of Baine's friends twice my size? "Okay, I'm Aly," I said looking up.

"Great to meet you, Aly." Then to Baine he said, "She could have been Quin's twin sister."

"But she moves like Cassidy," Baine said.

That hit me like a kick in the gut. I'd only ever seen pictures of my parents. I never got to see how they acted or did things. I mentally teared up at the lost memories that I could have right now if they hadn't been killed. But the seductiveness that was hidden behind Baine's seemingly agreeing tone that Josh was totally oblivious to startled me.

Josh nodded. "I need to get back to Lilly, I told her that I would only be on break for an hour. Can you believe that she said that she'd pay me half day today if I was late?" He sounded irritated.

"Goodbye, Josh," Baine said.

The two men shook hands and Josh nodded a goodbye to me and left.

It wasn't until after the front door shut that Baine spoke. "Put on a jacket and meet me at the car."

It seemed weird to me that he was treating me like I'd lived here for months rather than days. In my town, a host would usually go with you to get your things and not make you walk all by yourself in an unfamiliar house while they got a head start on things. Obviously Baine wasn't from there.

Five minutes later —after I trudged up three flights of stairs (irritated at myself for not getting a jacket in the first place because it was obviously raining outside), found a jacket that matched my attire, and then walked back down the stairs— I walked out the front door to the waiting car.

"Where are we going?" I asked as I shut the door of his amazing car behind me.

Baine ignored me —something that I would have to accept, but never like— and drove the car down the long driveway. He answered me _after_ he drove through the gate and out onto the road.

"Josh gave me some information about one of my… hobbies, you could say. And it tied into his job, so he asked me to take care of it for him so he wouldn't get fired at his human job."

"He has a human job?" What is that about?

"It is a cover. He keeps watch over the Humans on their side and makes sure that no Magi cross over in his area, and if they do he kills them."

I shivered at the coldness in his voice. Totally remorseless. "Why can't you just put them back on the Magi side?" I asked. Was it all about killing for them? If it was then I wasn't sure that I wanted to be a part of this.

"If we sent them back they would tell others how they found a way across the Spell and we would have a huge problem on our hands," Baine said.

I looked at the dash. That made sense. Killing them was really the only option. Because you can't send them back, and you can't just leave them in the Human Realm. "So how is Josh's job tied to your hobby?" I asked. Thinking of Baine as a guy with a hobby seemed to diminish his huge manly ego. What was his hobby anyway?

"I like to… collect ancient objects and artifacts," he said. "Josh has a problem with a vampire that found out a way to cheat the spell with an extremely complex counter spell that he created and put into an amulet. I want that amulet and Josh wants the vampire dead."

"So you're taking me with you to go kill a vampire?" I asked. I couldn't decide whether that was awesome or scary. A pissed off vampire isn't something to be messing around with, but I had a feeling that it was something that Baine did on a regular basis, and after watching him kill a giant wolf and knowing that he had gone after that wolf's pack and killed all of them aswell on top of killing a dementor I was sure that a vampire wasn't going to be a problem.

Baine nodded. "You are going to find the amulet."

"I would be okay with that if I knew what it looks like." What I was thinking and what I said were two different things. I was thinking that I _might_ have been okay if he had asked me to help in the first place.

"It looks like an amulet," he said simply.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Why do I have to look for it?"

"Because it is between that or finding and killing the vampire yourself."

"Fine. I'll find your stupid amulet," I muttered. "Why do you want it anyway?"

"Would you risk having a transportation device to cheat the spell floating around the world unprotected?"

That made sense. "Okay, okay I get it. I'll get the amulet, you get the vamp." I had a feeling that this was going to be an interesting trip.

Man, my life is turning upside down and inside out. Taylor and Andi would have been thrilled if I had told them about all of this. They would be the only ones thrilled though. Everyone else would have either thought I had totally gone off the deep end, or that I was joking around. I'd never had many close relations until I met Andi and she introduced me to Taylor.

"People think that I'm weird because they can feel that I'm not human, right?" I asked Baine, not bothering to hide the bitterness in my voice and kept my eyes on the people milling around on the rain slicked sidewalks as we got to the center of town.

I saw Baine look at me out of the corner of my eye, but I didn't try to see what he was feeling. I kept my focus outside. This is a touchy subject for me. I'd not had many friends all through school, end I felt even worse when I would catch guys saying that I was hot, but I was too weird to go out with.

"Humans can feel things that aren't their kind," he said. "That's why they get the feeling of unease in dark forests and cemeteries. It is because they can feel our kind through the Spell. Some of them are closer to it than others. Psychics and Wickens are the closest. The most knowledgeable of them know about the separation of the world and they keep the records of the Humans past."

I nodded in understanding. That was interesting. But I was more interested in what I heard after that. Or rather, what I hadn't heard. I heard Baine's voice, but his mouth wasn't moving and I almost did a double take, until I remembered that I was in a world where magic really did exist, along with telepathy.

_Why is she easier to talk to than other people? I always say too much. If this keeps up I'll end up telling her about the whole history of the World._

Well that was going to take some time getting used to. Hearing Baine's thoughts? For however brief of a time that I'd heard his mind before it was abruptly cut off, I'd heard some information worth knowing.

I was easy to talk to? Well I had some charisma, I guess. But I couldn't imagine Baine ever saying too much. It was usually not enough. And how could he possibly know the while history of the world? And why could I not read his thoughts all of the time like he could mine?

In the corner of my mind I saw irritation flash across Baine's face, followed by a mischievous glint in his eyes. "That would be because you don't guard your thoughts all of the time," he said. "And I do."

Show off. He'd been doing it for how many years, and I'd only even know about this world for what, three days? But I'd read a series that had a similar ability in it, and it sounded just like this, so would I be able to block someone reading my mind in that same way?

I imagined a black emptiness, like space, and let my mind feel around. Every living mind was a home. Some were impenetrable fortresses, like Baine's who was surrounded by a dome of steel and was radiating some kind of masculine energy that made me realize that not only was he strong physically, but mentally aswell. Some were as weak as the house made of hey from the story The Three Little Pigs. Who is the Big Bad Wolf in this situation?

I looked over to Baine. He was, obviously. His shield was the only one that was actually radiating an aura that seemed to say, "Come any closer and you're dead."

I made a mental note to not mess with his mind on purpose and looked at my own shield. It was pathetic. It was about as protective as wet paper. I imagined it as a dome, like Baine's only mine was much cooler. It was made of sapphire dragon scales, exactly like in the book Eragon, by Christopher Paolini. It was the best armor that I could think of, and only another dragon's claws or teeth could penetrate it. On that thought, I added a second layer of protection as precaution on the outside of my dragon scale wall. I doubt that anyone could bring a dragon into the mind realm, but who knows? Until recently, I didn't know that dementors existed. I made my second layer into mithril, a material mined by the dwarves and made into armor aswell. It was as light as a feather, and as hard as dragon scales. Anyone who knew about the series The Lord of the Rings in the Magi world would know about this and know that if you hit hard enough, it could leave a bruise.

I had a reason for crafting my little creation as I did. Just in case someone in the magical realm _did_ know about that series, they would know the weakness, but I doubted that they would be expecting a second layer of real dragon scales that wouldn't leave a mark.

I frowned to myself. I really did read too much. Sooner or later I was going to start making little Elvin warriors with magical weapons to protect the perimeter.

"Do not think down on your little creation," Baine said. "It is good. Better than any amateur Sentinel I have ever seen."

"It's obviously not," I said, irritated. "You can still hear what I'm thinking."

He shook his head. "You may be a Scorpio, but you don't act like one."

"Huh?" What was he talking about, bringing astrological signs into this?

"Have you ever taken a Zodiac quiz before, Ms. Ellidyr?" he asked.

"Once. I thought it was stupid because it didn't say that I was a Scorpio. But I know I don't act like one," I told him. I was really irritated about that. It was yet another thing that was just wrong with me. I would love to be like any other normal Scorpio, to be feisty and womanly and strong at the same time. But no, the description that I got from the quiz was that I was more of a loner. I lived inside of my mind and was self-critical, but on the good side I was very precise about everything and good at seeing details. I was Virgo.

Next to me, Baine nodded. "There is a reason for that, don't think it's your fault."

"What? How could you possibly know the reason why I have a different personality than what I'm supposed to? How is that even possible?" What am I thinking? How many times was I going to forget that this was a world where leprechauns existed?

Baine took his eyes off of the road and looked at me and I panicked as a sharp corner came along. But the car continued smoothly. "You wouldn't understand right now, even if I told you," he said.

Apparently the underestimation of teenagers didn't differ between Realms. Why couldn't someone just explain everything to me without judgment? I was smarter than the average eighteen year old, really.

"And if I were to explain it to you right now we would miss the change to kill the vampire," he continued.

I checked my mental shield. It was still up and as solid as it had been when I created it only moments ago. How in the world was he still reading my mind? Or was it because I wasn't as Virgo as I thought and my thoughts were all over my face.

"Don't worry, Ms. Ellidyr," he said. "No one will be able to read you. I am very gifted at reading people." He turned his attention back to the road.

I shot him an annoyed look and stared out the rain slicked window. I was glad that other people weren't going to be able to read me, but it irked me immensely that Baine could. What if someone else had the gift for reading people? How was I supposed to guard agenst that?

I realized that I was getting paranoid. Like I thought that everyone was agenst me or something. It wasn't until later that I would learn that this was how life was in the real world. You were either used, or the user.

* * *

It turned out that the place we were vampire hunting was near a large park at the edge of the city. It was a beautiful park, with short cut grass and even an old fashioned stone fountain topped with cupids in the center. As we walked past it I watched drops of rain break the surface of the pool and saw a few coins at the bottom.

We walked to the edge of the park and beyond toward a literal wall of ancient trees. I both felt and saw the boundary line that separated the park and the forest. The grass was growing tall and there was a different air hovering past the cracked sidewalk. It felt old. Very old. Full of –

I stopped my analysis of the place and shook my head. I had just started quoting Legolas' lines from the Lord of the Rings when he, Aragorn, and Gimli entered Fangorn Forrest. Man, I really did read too much.

But I couldn't believe that I had judged this place so quickly. I hadn't seen anything creepy or bad about it so far.

"Okay, I know that you brought me along to look for the amulet, but what exactly is the situation?" I asked. It would be nice if I knew what to expect. "Where am I supposed to look for this amulet? I don't think that the vamp would have a convenient box that he keeps it in that would be sitting on a shelf somewhere out here in the middle of a forest."

"You would be surprised how many things can be hiding in plain sight, Ms. Ellidyr," Baine answered.

"Do you really have to call me by my last name?" I asked. "The formalness is annoying. I am staying in your house, after all."

The look he gave me couldn't have said 'no' any better. "The only other thing I can think of calling you would be Kid, since you are one. But I think that would be a downgrade, don't you?"

"Can't you just call me Aly like everyone else?" I asked, irritated.

"No," he said conversationally.

I threw him a cold look, my mouth open for a snippy comment, but I stopped. I heard something. It was a steady, pulsating beat. Like a bass. Then I heard a guitar. What the heck? Who would be playing music out here in the middle of a forest? There was something else too. It sounded like a screaming crowd at a concert.

"Why is there a concert in the middle of a forest?" I asked. "Do you think that the vampire is here and going to feed?"

The bass got louder and I felt the ground vibrate through the souls on my boots. "It is how he draws his meal," Baine answered, taking my wrist and pulling me off in a certain direction, through a wall of hedges.

I felt as if I had dived into the river Styx, a sea of undead spirits. But these ones were living. There was no doubt about that. I could hear their heavy breathing and feel the heat radiating from their bodies. But it sure looked like I was surrounded by the dead. Every person there was dressed in the present day goth/emo style. Black, blood red, and dark purple were the colors that made up everyone's clothing. Of course it wasn't that that bothered me. I mean, I was wearing close to the same thing at the moment and I hadn't planned on coming to this metal concert. What bothered me was that every person was supporting at least ten piercings on their faces and it made me wonder if they had got in a major fishing accident or something and it creeped me out to no end. The screaming coming from the giant amps that surrounded the crowd made it hard to hear myself think.

Baine pulled me along through the punk-rock dressed teens toward what looked like a makeshift stage. On it were five of the freakiest looking people that I'd ever seen. I saw green, blue, yellow, and purple Mohawks and crimson tipped jet black hair. That was what caught my eye, the red tipped hair on the lead singer. He was dressed in black jeans, black boots, and a black t-shirt. He had a gruff charm about him that was thick and magnetic. And he was pretty muscular. But it wasn't the suggested and usual _look at me I'm ripped_ muscular. It was more of a scary, _look at me I can rip your head off with one hand tied behind my back_ muscular.

I looked from the lead singer to Baine. He was studying the whole band with an interest. Then he looked over the crowd towards a chain link fence and then down to me. "The lead singer is the vampire," he said. "I am going to have to wait for the band to take a break before I kill him, or the crowd will panic."

By the way they were dressed I wouldn't be surprised if they couldn't get scared. "What do you want me to do?"

"Past that fence and through the trees a few yards is where the band's bus is parked. Go look through it, the amulet is surely there somewhere."

I glanced at the fence and then back at him. "Is there any chance that I can wait for you to kill him and we can look for the amulet together?" I hate doing things by myself. I was better when I had another person to do things with.

The look he gave me was a 'no' again.

"Right, I thought not. Okay well…" I took a deep breath and then turned around and marched off through the crowd. I felt like a total loner, but I guess that I need to get used to it. I doubted that Baine was going to baby me through anything in this world and I didn't expect him to. I was strong. I didn't need any help anyway.

I followed the flow of the crowd towards the front of the stage, oddly enough it seemed to thin out. With less people I could work my way over to the fence easier than I could if I had gone straight.

But somehow I ended up right in front of the stage, staring up at the vampire and his mesmerizing voice. I hadn't really listened to it before because I had been worried about what we were here for… what had we been here for anyway? Who had I come with?

A black fog seemed to encompass my brain, cutting off my thoughts as I stared up at those black eyes that contrasted beautifully agenst pale skin. It was like staring into the abyss. But then I was faced with a problem. The abyss stared back.

I should be afraid. I should be looking away and continuing with… something. What was I supposed to be doing? Not listening to one of my favorite kinds of music that was being turned into some kind of desirable beat by a very seductive voice. Not thinking about how the music made my blood rush and my chest burn. All I could see was the black as pitch eyes of the vampire—

Vampire!

What was I thinking?!

I looked away from the unnatural black eyes and shook my head. Everything was clear to me then. What I had come here for and what kind of danger I had just put myself in. I feel it now, the magic behind the words in the song. The music was meant to attract, meant to seduce. This vampire must not have only had an appetite for blood. I realized that about eighty-five percent of the crowd was girls.

Without another look up at the Magi, I continued my path for the fence. The whole way I was careful to keep myself grounded, thinking about things other than the music, which I found difficult. I am used to handing my mind over to the music when I want to forget something. But now I had to force myself to think about everything and keep my mind off of the music.

It was a relief when I reached the fence. I wasn't surprised why I had always naturally hated big crowds. Too much movement, I felt like I was drowning in people. They were all breathing my air, and they were in my space bubble. I hate it when people get too close to me.

Baine said that the bus was parked a few yards through the trees. I just need to go back around the fence and sneak off into the trees. Hoping that there wasn't any security around the vehicle that Baine might have forgotten to mention, I followed the fence line back a short way and found a gate. I slid the chain from around the pole and slipped through.

I doubted that anyone noticed. They were all too grossly engrossed with the vampire's song. I shut the gate behind me, just in case, and walked away from the blaring music into the forest again. I was irritated with myself that I would let myself get caught in the vampire's spell, even if it was for a short amount of time. I was stronger than that.

I was even more irritated at Baine for dragging me into the crowd in the first place. Why couldn't he have told me to go this way before drowning me in the river of undead? It was his fault that I was faced with the situation in the first place.

If he tried to deny that, I'd kill him, I thought as I cautiously approached the rock bands tour bus. It reflected their music. It was black splattered in dark red paint that looked even more like blood with the rain running down the sides, with a very detailed skull with fangs and bat's wings.

When I saw that there was no one around, I snickered at the irony. Vampire fangs and bat wings on the band's insignia. I wondered what the actual name of the band was.

The door of the driver's side opened easily and I was surprised that I wasn't going to have to break any windows. I figured that it was going to be locked and that my combat boots were going to be tested as safety glass breakers.

The inside of the bus was no different than any other band's bus that I'd seen on one of the only television channels that I watched. There was a booth and table on one side and a miniature kitchen on the other, and further back there were a couple of bunks, a bathroom door, and a black wall with a small TV on it.

There was nothing that seemed out of the ordinary, oddly enough. I frowned. The vampire would surely have to keep his junk somewhere around with him. I began my search, first opening all of the drawers in the kitchen area, then looking inside of the refrigerator. I looked under the booth's cushions and under the table. I looked in all five bunks. I even checked around for secret hidden compartments. I found nothing.

I leaned agenst the table and looked around. Where else was there to hide an amulet? I didn't even know what size this thing was so that I could shorten the list of possibilities of places that it could be hidden.

What was it that Baine had said? _Hidden in plain sight._ Would the vamp really have done that? I doubted it, but it was better than any other idea that I had right now. I walked to the back of the bus and looked around as if I were just a normal person checking out my favorite band's tour bus.

Something caught my eye. Something that seemed to pulse with energy. I don't know how to describe the sight, but I could feel the magic, just as I had heard it woven into the song. It was in the steering wheel. I moved closer and looked at the center where the horn should have been.

Instead of the Ford logo that should have been there, there was a cross. I almost snickered again. How ironic was that? In most myths, vampires were driven off my by crosses. This one wasn't like the little delicate cross that Risa always wore. This one had to be at least four inches long.

I looked closer and saw a seam. Well, at least I knew that I had found the amulet, not just some fancy steering wheel decoration. I plucked the object out of the wheel and along with it came a sturdy looking chain.

The sound of it dropping to hit the edge of the steering wheel made me freeze in alarm, and made me painfully aware that there was no longer a rhythmic bass playing anymore. Shoot, I needed to leave. I was so toast if I got caught. I wound up the chain and slipped the amulet into my pocket and was sliding into the driver's seat to climb out, I heard something else.

It sounded like a puppies whine, and the adorable sound drew the full attention of Angel Aly. I took my hand off of the door handle and got back out of the seat and listened more closely. I could hear it again, a faint high pitched sound.

I followed it to the very back of the bus and I checked through and under all of the bunks again. Who would hide a pet in their bunk? But again, I found nothing.

Irritated, I stood back up and frowned at the wall. The noise seemed to be coming from there, but how was that possible? I had already ruled out the possibility of the sound echoing from somewhere, I mean I had already looked through the whole bus when I was searching for the amulet.

There was nothing on the wall but the TV. It was a flatscreen; I noted when I looked to the side of it. I saw that it wasn't firmly fixed to the wall either. That was strange, I personally, would have secured my TV to the wall if I was going to be driving around all of the time because eventually the vibrations of the vehicle would make it fall off of any stand or hook.

I heard the whine again. Man I really didn't have time to be doing this. If my next idea didn't work then I was going to have to leave without the poor little creature. I pushed my fingers into the gap between the TV and the wall and pulled, not trying to be careful. The vampire was going to be dead. He didn't need a TV.

It came off of the wall easier than I expected, but it was heavier that I thought it would be, and I didn't catch it in time before it fell on my foot. I swallowed a silent yell. Holy mother fudging cow! I thought flatscreens were supposed to be lighter!

I bit my tongue and moved the TV off to the side and leaned it agenst one of the bunks. What I found in the space behind the TV made me forget all about my foot. It was a cage built into the wall. And inside of it was one of the most interesting creatures that I had seen yet.

It was a shape shifter. As I watched, it morphed from a little chocolate Labrador puppy to a lion cub. I noted that it was staying around the same size so that the collar around its neck could fit. It pawed at the bars.

"Oh aren't you just the cutest thing!" I said quietly and reached for the cage door.

"Yes, I am, but have you looked in the mirror recently?" said a seductive voice from behind me.

I spun around instantly. Leaning agenst the table in the same position that I had been only minutes ago, was the vampire. Shoulder length black hair tipped in crimson, pale skin, dark eyes, it was a wonder that no one else had thought he was of another world. Of course all of the teens that listened to the music would have been entranced and not had another thought beyond getting laid.

"Fudge," I muttered under my breath. This does not look good. How in the world was I going to get out of this? Where was Baine? The vamp was supposed to be dead! "I'm sorry. I was only helping out a friend with a bet. She was supposed to bring back a souvenir from your bus and she was too chicken to do it so I did it instead." My words came out in a rush.

"And you thought that our little family pet would be a good souvenir?" the vampire asked.

I opened my mouth, shut it, and then opened it again. "Yes, my friend loves cats and a lion cub is pretty wicked." I just have to make him think that I'm another one of his little fans. Then maybe he'll let me go without any suspicions. But if he knew that I knew what he was… well than I was screwed and the whole plan was toast. Because he would leave the city and Baine would have to go track him down again.

Unexpectedly, he smiled. I saw the sharp canine teeth felt my blood run cold. "I guess that I could let you have him. But it would have to be an exchange."

Seriously? He would give the shape shifting pet to a Human?! Well, given the fact that he thought I was one. Every bone in my body felt as if that was wrong, a dangerous thing to do, to let the Humans get riled up over magic creatures. I had the sudden urge to tell this creep that it would be agenst the rules and if this would have been a test he would have failed miserably.

"Really?" I asked, trying to look astonished. "What do I have to do?" I was going to get this little shape shifter whether he liked it or not. Some small part in the back of my head was saying _get it safe, away from the Human world._ It was like Baine had said earlier. I didn't want a magical amulet out there floating around, and I didn't want a Magi animal out there either. It could be a problem. I would have to find something to do with it because it would be agenst every single part of my girlish side. It wasn't any danger to me -that I know of- so there is no point in killing it.

"Nothing really," the vamp answered, coming closer. "Only give me a look at your beautiful neck."

I locked my jaw to keep it from falling open. He wanted a look at my neck? He couldn't have told me more subtly that he wanted to drink my blood. What was I supposed to say to that? I really didn't want to abandon the poor little creature. But I supposed that I could come back and get it after this guy was dead. That is, if Baine managed to get over here _to_ kill him.

The tone in his voice was seductive, like the music, but this time I was aware of it and spoke instead of standing there gaping at his black eyes like an idiot. I was not going to get spelled this time. I was stronger than that.

"Actually," I said, moving towards the front of the tour bus, "I think I'll just go. I don't want to bother you after an amazing show and it's not like she is going to die from losing a bet. Besides, I'll be able to tell her that I met you and ooh! Maybe you can give me your autograph or something that way I have proof." I was babbling. But it was the only thing that I could think of as I moved towards the exit. I had to keep his eyes away from the steering wheel. I would not only be toast, I would be toast burnt so badly that it turned to ash with one touch if he found out that I had the amulet.

"Oh you can't leave yet," he said, moving toward me. "You know my reputation. You are too pretty to just let you go."

I opened my mouth, intent on babbling some more to distract him, but his words tripped me up. This guy had a reputation? How long had he been in the Human world?

I think he took my hesitation as the indecision of a young teen who knows what she wants but isn't supposed to have it. Because one moment he was standing agenst the table and the next he was pushing me up agenst the wall, smelling the blood rushing through my veins.

I all but screamed. This was the worst position I could ever be in. Where was Baine? This wouldn't be happening if he had done his job! "Your reputation is one that I tend to stay away from," I snapped, pushing back.

He grinned and I saw that his canine teeth were sharp. Anticipation shone in his eyes. "I don't think so. I saw you when you were up agenst the stage. I watched you go through the fence and sneak off through the trees. You were with a man, not any of your friends. I smelled you the moment you crossed through the hedges."

My mouth dropped open. As my aunt would say every so often, bloody hell! He'd seen me with Baine? He'd smelled me when I came through the hedges? I know he was a vampire, but seriously? Why me?

"What I should be asking right now," he continued, "is where is your man?"

I had a serious urge to yell at the top of my lungs that Baine was in no way my man. But it wasn't the fact that I was in serious trouble with a vampire squishing me up agenst the wall at the moment that kept me from doing it. It was that small part in the back of my brain that had awakened last night. This was a bad time to start thinking about that. I focused my attention on my dilemma.

"I'm sure that he is waiting for me right now as a matter of fact," I said and I started to slip by him and head for the door.

"Not so fast," he grabbed the opening of my jacket where I hadn't zipped it up and left it just below my breasts. "I'm sure that he wouldn't mind if you spent a little quality time with the lead singer of your favorite band."

Oh my God! This showed me a hundred times over that it didn't matter whether it was Magi or Human, men are all the same! Especially the creepers. Where the heck is Baine? I had been keeping up my mental shield, had actually forgotten about it for a moment, and had an idea. I slammed it down as fast as I could and screamed, _Dimitri Baine, get over here now!_

I felt oddly exposed and put my guard back up, praying that he heard me. I was going to kill him if he let me die now! On top of being scared out of my mind, I was utterly pissed at him. How hard was it to keep track of a vampire, really? Baine had skills from what I had seen. What could be keeping him this long?

I had a sudden, worried thought. He had said that he wasn't just going to let me die. And he had a knack for showing up just in time, but I thought this was cutting it too close. Was he held up? Had something gone wrong? Had something happened to him?

I realized that I might really be on my own here and jerked away from the vamp. The faster I got away from him the better. But all I managed to do was be nearly strangled by my own jacket, the left side fell away from my shoulder and was actually snapped in the opposite direction from the force of my pull.

Big mistake that was. The moment he saw the Sentinel mark on my shoulder he hissed, the air in the vehicle seeming to turn darker. "You're Magi," he said as if clarifying some thought he might have had. Then I saw his canines extend in a feral, mocking grin, and he lunged for my neck.

I squeezed my eyes shut expecting to feel the bite, but what happened was quite different. I heard the sound of metal being torn and shattering glass and felt myself falling. I opened my eyes with a short shriek before I hit the tiled and floor of the tour bus.

I looked up to see Baine stepping in through a hole in the side of the bus and standing between the vampire and me. "I am going to get tired of saving your pretty little ass, kid," Baine said, pulling out that lethal sword of his.

I almost didn't answer, I was too shaken. But I recovered quickly. "Well it's a good thing that you made a promise to keep me alive, huh?" I snapped back, overlooking the new nickname.

"You?" the vampire hissed and the air got even darker. I got up and looked around Baine's huge figure that filled up the short hall. The vampire's eyes weren't black anymore. They were red. It was everything that all of the bad vampire films had shown. The transformation into the creature form.

I shivered. It was scary to say the least. The skin peeled and split open with a tearing sound that made me want to gag. The bone structure reformed, growing bigger and wings split from its back covered dripping in blood and slime. The facial features were morphed into a combination of a bat and a human. The jaw and mouth remained almost the same, except without lips, but the nose was split and bat like, along with its eyes. The ears grew nearly four pointy inches and the claws on its long, grey fingers curved dangerously.

I was left with my mouth hanging open standing limply agenst the wall where the little shape shifting creature's cage was inserted into. There was no way that any horror or vampire movie could come up with something as real as that.

In front of me Baine was the first one to make a move. He lunged toward the huge creature with a force that rocked the vehicle so hard that I hit the back of my head agents the wall.

When my head snapped back and my eyes focused again I found the vampire's hands around Baine's right arm. Shit, I thought. He finally met his match. But damn, I was wrong. Without hesitation he spun around and drove his left elbow into the creature's rib cage and if I wasn't mistaken, it actually _sunk into_ the creature's rib cage.

The sound that the vampire let out was so high pitched and loud that I clapped my hands over my ears and staggered to my knees. I could swear that my ears were bleeding and when it was over everything was muffled for a moment.

But it didn't slow Baine down a single bit. He ducked his head and wrenched his sword arm out of the vampire's grasp while it was weakened, straight towards its throat. I closed my eyes. I had no desire to see what happened next. What I heard was enough.

There was the beginning of that high pitched scream again, but it was cut off by a gurgling, bubbly sound. I heard a grunt and then the sound of flesh being chopped and bone cracking. Then there was a small fleshy thud, followed by a larger one.

I swallowed and took a shaky breath before I looked up to see Baine breathing hard, pulling a lighter out of his pocket and as I expected, the vampire's body laying bloody at his feet, starting to deteriorate already, but slower than the wolf had.

I shivered violently and stood up. "You're going to blow up the bus if you set that on fire," I said, my voice hoarse.

He looked at me. "That's the point."

I blinked comprehendingly and then turned around and opened the cage that the shape shifting Magi animal was in. It leapt out almost gratefully into my arms. It was so adorable, I thought, but I didn't feel any of the happiness or warmth that you got when you saw something that cute. I felt like I was a robot, emotionless. I get like that when I go through something that stuns me. It's like I bury myself deep inside of my brain and my body keeps functioning to do what it is supposed to do.

I turned back around to find Baine watching me with disbelief, anger, and worry. I stared at him blankly. Out of the mix, worry showed through more so than the others.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

I nodded. Yes, I was fine. I wasn't hurt, just shaken to a level that I needed to stop and think over before I could calm down and actually deal with. I didn't expect him to understand that, so I took his meaning literally.

He watched me for another moment and then his eyes went to the creature in my arms. The little thing was in the shape of a lion cub again and clawing at the collar around its neck. I ignored the sudden understanding and anger that went over his face again and was happy that he kept his mouth shut. He must have guessed that I had found the little creature and that was somehow the reason that the vampire had caught up with me.

I don't know what I would have done if he had said something about it at that moment. There were two main possibilities. I would have either started crying my eyes out because I was scared out of my mind, or gotten extremely pissed at him and gone off on a ranting about how he had no right to talk about me wasting time when he should have killed the vampire first off and if he would have done that then I wouldn't have been faced with a huge problem and been scared out of my mind and then almost raped/eaten by a fudging vampire!

"Did you find the amulet?" he asked.

"It was in the steering wheel," I said and pulled it out of my pocket.

He nodded once, worry stirring in his eyes again. I assumed it was over the complete and utterly emotionless tone of voice I was using. It was a whole other side of me that people didn't like.

"Keep it for now. And give up on the blank act, it doesn't suit you." Oddly enough, he was being serious, as if he didn't like it when I went totally emotionless.

"Do you think you can go wait over by the trees?" he went on. This time he used a tone that I hadn't heard before. It was like he was being careful, like he was trying to talk a mental patient out of suicide.

I gave him a look that clearly said _I'm not that stupid,_ and walked out of the vehicle through the hole that Baine had turned into a door. Did he think I could wait by the trees, I thought sourly. What, just because I wasn't showing any emotion like he did to me all of the time meant that I was suddenly unstable or something? Did he think that for some reason I was going to just be able to first nearly be killed by a dementor, then find out my aunt and uncle are abducted, then nearly be killed by a giant wolf, then nearly get fed off of by a vampire, then watch it transform to a horrifying degree, and then watch him kill it almost as horrifyingly all in under a short four days? At some point any normal person was going to crack and freak out or, like me, shut down and re-boot like a computer so that I could process the information and still manage to keep my sanity.

The little creature morphed in my arms as I leaned up agenst a tree and stared blankly at the ground, trying to sort through what had just happened and file it away along with the rest of this new and crazy stuff. I looked down to see a little black kitten with stunningly green eyes looking up at me.

I saw a kind of emotion in those eyes, like the creature was sentient, and it looked like gratitude. It was so adorable that I smiled faintly. I was happy that I had gone back for this little guy, even though it had got me in a world of trouble. Because I had a feeling that if I hadn't I still would have been caught by that vamp and Baine still would have killed it and I still would have been burying myself. But thanks to this little guy, I couldn't be totally emotionless for however long a time that I would usually be after something like this happened. Normally when it was something this bad like finding out about the details of my parents' death I would have been in this state, no emotion at all, for three or four days before I finally came out of it.

But there was no way that I couldn't feel at least a little happy around this thing. I felt attached for some reason, as if I had just bought a new pet. I actually regretted that I was still detached from my body though. I just couldn't take my mind off of what I just saw. It would take me a day at the very least if I really forced myself to see the brighter side of things and kept from thinking about all of the possibilities of what could have happened if Baine hadn't shown up and so on. But I would have to do a lot of forcing.

In front of me I saw Baine walk out of the hole in the side of the bus and about three seconds later it blew up. Seeing Baine walking that way and watching the explosion go off behind him sure was something. It highlighted his chiseled features and defined his body to exact definition. Damn he was everything that my dream Man was. Note the capital M. he wasn't just a boy, or a guy. He was a Man.

Well there was another thing that would take my mind off of what had just happened, Devil Aly thought in a seductive tone. I shoved that thought to the back of my head. I _wasn't_ going to start fantasizing about Dimitri Baine just to get out of an unhealthy mental state. I was simply stating facts.

He paused when he reached the tree that I was standing next to and looked me over.

"I told you, I'm fine," I said. I could read the worry in his eyes as easy as reading a third grade book. I realized that in this state of mind I could read him better. It was either that, or he was feeling so strongly that it showed through his normally blank reserve.

He shook his head. "No you're not. I can't feel your mind anywhere. You've completely disappeared."

I looked down at myself pointedly and then back up to him. "Good. Then maybe I won't be found by anything else that wants me dead," I said flatly.

He gave me a look. "That isn't what I was talking about and you know it."

I shrugged indifferently. "It doesn't matter. I just need time to think it over, alright?" When he didn't answer I went on. "I promise. Just a day. Maybe I can sleep it off."

It didn't change his outlook on me whatsoever. He looked into my eyes and I into his for almost a minute and then I spoke, tired on the analytical gaze he was looking at me with. He'd already looked through me and gotten a good idea of how I acted. Now he was just going to have to find out the other things that I did without trying to read me.

"We should probably go. Someone was bound to have noticed that explosion," I said and then turned to walk off back in the general direction of the park.

I felt Baine's hand on my shoulder then, and he pulled me back and turned me around to face him.

"I told you I'm—" but my words were cut off when his lips met mine.

I wanted to melt. My whole body relaxed from the tension that it had been in and I hopelessly leaned into him, lips parting beneath his, fire coursing through my veins and my Sentinel mark burning. And then it was over.

He leaned back and looked into my eyes… and then left. He just walked off in the direction that I had been heading to only seconds ago. I stood there, breathless and staring at the burning scraps of the tour bus. Great, now on top of being freaked out I was totally confused, not only over why the heck he'd just kissed me, but my feelings about it. Damn it, my life was so much easier before I met him!

I felt his hand around my arm and he pulled me along through the trees. I barely registered the fact that I was moving because I was so immersed in my thoughts.

"You orbed," he said suddenly.

"Yeah," I said absently. I was in no mood for a conversation, I wasn't really even aware that I'd answered him. This was something that I had forgotten about. My sudden movement from being squished up agenst the wall by that vampire, to falling from ceiling height onto the floor as Baine made a new door for that bus.

"How?" he asked.

I frowned. That was a good question. Then I shrugged. "I figured that you would know that." After all, he was the one who figured that I could orb in the first place.

"I do know. But the question is could you do it again?"

"Oh. Well then no. I have no idea. One moment I was there the next I was falling on the floor." I tried to recall that exact moment, to remember my thoughts, but all I did was close my eyes and waited for my throat to be torn open.

"Think about it. Let me know what you come up with," he said, giving up any attempts at conversation with me.

Good. I didn't really want to talk right now anyway. Because every time I heard his voice I kept thinking about what it would sound like if he was whispering in my ear and kissing me again…

I shook my head violently. No, that was not a good path to be drifting off down right now. Who cares if he'd just kissed me. I climbed into the car and the little creature shifted into a blue healer puppy and started scratching at its collar again.

I'd had a pet once, when I was little. She was a black lab and her name was Ebony. But she got old and passed away. I remembered how she loved it when I scratched under her collar, she wore it all the time and it got annoying and would lay with me on the floor for an hour at least and just let me scratch under her collar.

I did the same here to this creature and it completely relaxed on my lap with its tongue lolling out of its mouth a little bit. I grinned and twisted the collar around to see if there were any tags on it. Did Magi animals even need shots?

I assumed not when I found only one golden tag attached to the black collar. It was the name tag.

"His name is Fang," I said absently. That was interesting name. I wondered if he could turn into anything besides a cat or dog. The collar probably kept him from turning into anything larger than it would permit. That would be useful for going out in public or something. It was even adjustable in size.

I returned to scratching under the collar and stared out the window. The clouds were dark. I was surprised to find that it was four o' clock. It must have taken a while for the drive all of the way across the city, plus the distance between Baine's mansion and any civilization for miles.

"It's a familiar," Baine said a few minutes later.

"You mean like a witches pet?" I asked, catching on.

He nodded. "They don't _have_ to eat, but they do like to. The usual favorite is any kind of citrus fruit. It doesn't cost much. I suppose I could buy it until you get a job."

"Wait, are you saying that I can keep him?" I asked.

"He's gotten as attached to you as you are to him. I would hate to see you cry if I didn't let you," his voice was totally unemotional, but I could tell he was doing this for a reason. Was he trying to make me happy? He'd said the emotionless gig didn't fit me too well, and I was still pretty blank, but when he'd kissed me it had woke me up a little. What that the only reason that he'd done it? I shrugged that thought off. At the moment, he was saying yes to letting me keep the cutest little animal that I'd ever see in my life.

"Really?" I said, sounding like a kid that got to open a present the day before Christmas. Wow, who knew that so small a thing could make such a difference? In my excitement I had totally forgotten about the past few hours. It seemed to be exactly what Baine had been aiming for, because he smiled a genuine grin that wasn't full of any sarcastic or fake emotion.

I stared, wide eyed. My earlier thoughts came back to me now, the feeling of those sensual lips agenst mine made my blood boil again.

I blinked and shook my head again and looked at Fang. I am not falling for Dimitri Baine, I am not falling for Dimitri Baine, I repeated to myself over and over. It took a while to convince myself totally and unquestioningly of the fact. I finally stopped when we reached the gate of the house.

Two hours later.

Dear Diary,

I went through an interesting day today.

I met another one of Baine's friends, his name is Josh Evans. He seems nice enough and said that he's known Baine for forever.

Baine also took me with him to kill a vampire today. That vampire turned out to be the lead singer of a band and was mesmerizing people with magic woven into their music. I got the amulet that Baine asked for though, and after almost getting forced to lose my virginity to a vampire and then watching it turn into its Other Form (description totally horror movie worthy) and then watching Baine kill it and having my mind shut down there for a while, I handed it over to him.

I found out how to Orb. Well… almost anyway. I did it, but I have no clue how. Baine is being a subborn jerk and is making me think about it before he gives me the answer. Grr.

I also got a pet today. His name is Fang, he is a Familiar. Baine has told me a little about them and I'm assuming that there is a book on them somewhere in that huge library that is next door to my room. He is my new buddy now, and totally adorable! From what I've seen so far he can only turn into felines and canines. Why I don't specify any kinds is because I think that he can get into bigger ones when he isn't wearing his collar. He really likes me, I think it's because I took him out of that horrible cage trapped behind a TV. I love him!

And the last thing that I shall mention… Baine kissed me today. I don't know what to think about that. The feeling of it was just so right. It made me feel alive and warm and if I go on I will be in danger of running downstairs right now and returning it. But he drives me insane! I don't know what to do! Grr again. *Sigh* maybe God will grant me a miracle and I won't ever have to decide.

~Hopelessly Confused (Aly)

I put my notebook and pen into the drawer that I decided I'd keep it in and sighed. I should have written about that last subject first. Now it was on my mind again. I walked over to the bed where I'd put Fang and taken off his collar.

I told him to go no bigger than a baby of anything on my bed, I didn't want to break it and who knows what he can turn into? Surprisingly, he understood. It was as I had thought earlier in the forest. He was sentient. At the moment he was a little kitten with tiger stripes and golden eyes.

I was happy that I was able to process things faster now. I hate those times when I locked myself up and threw away the key, because when I was done I would look back and see how cold that I'd been and regret things I'd said and done.

I realized that all I needed to do was force the information into my brain and look at the bright side of things.

I picked up Fang and crawled under my blankets and then placed him on the pillow next to my head. He curled up in a little ball and fell sound asleep. It wasn't much time later that I followed suit, trying and failing miserably to keep my mind off of that kiss.


End file.
